Influencing Corporations

As the tobacco industry faced increasing government regulation, it turned to the corporate world, particularly the corporations with which it had business ties, for assistance. Such corporate friends could obviously be useful to the industry in various ways, but, if nothing else, they could at least refrain from taking actions that were detrimental to the industry. A memo from the late 1970s discusses a proposal to use B&W's economic relationships to convince various corporations to maintain a more fa-

vorable attitude toward smoking and the tobacco industry. The memo, dated February 3, 1977, was sent from Ernest Pepples to C.I. McCarty.

A question has arisen in different forms about approaching companies we do business with who are prominent in association with the American Cancer Society or with other forces against the tobacco industry, or who happen to be involved in some other way with aspects of the anti-smoking campaign. Three examples: the Chairman of the St. Regis Paper Company is lending his name to the anti-smoking press release put out by the American Cancer Society; TWA [Trans World Airlines] would not let their premises be used by persons who were seeking petition signers in support of the industry's position before the CAB [Civil Aeronautics Board]; and the Chase Bank in New York is permitting a stop smoking clinic on their premises.

I favor the idea of raising with our friends in such companies the points which we consider are being used unfairly and falsely against tobacco and giving our side of the story.

It is imperative that we do not apply overt economic pressure in carrying our message. It is also essential that we operate this program solo. If it is done in collaboration with other companies or through the [Tobacco] Institute, in my opinion a serious question arises under various trade regulation laws which prohibit boycotts and other joint economic action.

Just as a rule of thumb, we have considerably greater latitude in deciding who [sic ] we will deal with than we do in deciding when we will stop dealing with someone. Both areas must be approached with great caution.

If properly structured, however, Brown & Williamson can certainly tell its side of the story in the smoking and health controversy and refute the false claims made against cigarettes. It goes without saying that communications to our friends in other industries should be done deliberately, carefully and tactfully in order to have maximum impact. If we follow that common sense approach, we will not stray off the path into the thicket of unfair trade practices and boycotts [emphasis added]. {2116.01}

In view of the industry's consistent public posture that smokers can quit if they so wish, it is hard to understand Pepples's concern over the existence of a stop-smoking clinic at the Chase Bank. In any event, the memo was written just as an initiative campaign was being launched in California to limit smoking in workplaces and public places (see chapter 10), and the tobacco industry in fact did exert enormous influence on restaurants and small business associations, as well as other corporate entities, to oppose that initiative. However, although the industry was able in the early days of the nonsmokers' rights movement to wield great influence with corporations, it gradually lost much of its corporate support as the dangers of secondhand smoke and the costs of smoking to employers became more evident. For example, when a law

to regulate smoking in the workplace was proposed in San Francisco in 1983, it was supported by the Bank of America.