"About Altria Overview." Altria. 2008. Altria Group Inc.. 3 Nov 2008
This website is a resource that provides insight on what type of public image the Altria Group is trying to promote and maintain. It does so by giving information on what companies Altria owns, the people it employs and the conditions they work in, the Groups philosophy and goals as well as the financial stance of the group. Though the site clearly aims to manipulate the viewer by emphasizing the positive aspects of the company, such as the diversity in employment, and keeps the negative aspects extremely vague, this in itself is of value since it demonstrates the Altria mindset. Overall, the information the site provides in addition to it illustrating the real aims of the Altria Group make it a valuable source.
"Altria Group." Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. 31 October 2008. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 3 Nov 2008
This site gives the general idea of what the Altria Group is by touching on the group’s holdings, its history, the corporate governance and the tobacco brand names it owns. Its main focus is on the tobacco component of the company, only mentioning the company’s interests in the food industry in the history. The author of the page is clearly more concerned with the tobacco aspect of the company, though the page strives to be objective in its detailed history. Nonetheless, the detailed history of Philip Morris as well as the information given on the group’s brand name holdings and board of directors proves to be very useful. All in all, the site is a good starting point to the research, though its focal point and biased bibliography could manipulate the reader’s opinion.
Dresler, Carolyn.Marks, Stephen P., 1943- The Emerging Human Right to Tobacco Control
Human Rights Quarterly - Volume 28, Number 3, August 2006, pp. 599-651
This article explains the human right to tobacco control that, in addition to other efforts to control the morbidity and mortality rates related to the tobacco industry’s actions, should be implemented more vigorously in today’s society. The Section dealing with the public perspective on tobacco control discusses the effects of tobacco today on public health, the environment and work conditions, in addition to making bleak predictions on worldwide conditions in future. It relates these problems back to the tobacco industry’s relentless aggressive expansion and marketing. The authors focus clearly rests on the health and societal issues caused by smoking and the tobacco industry, which, it can be argued, are largely responsible for these effects. However the author fails to mention the factor that people do make the conscious decision to smoke even though they are fully aware of the consequences. Overall, this article provides valuable statistics and information on the tobacco industry, even if it fails to mention one fact that cannot be blamed on the tobacco industry.
"ETS Strategy: Corporate Affairs PM -USA." Legacy Tobacco Documents Library. University of California. 4 Nov 2008
This document, a corporate affairs report of Philip Morris USA, deals with the ‘problem’ of ETS (also known as second-hand smoke) and how to alter and manipulate public opinion on it. The document shows several plans of action to alter the public opinion, which include shifting the blame on general bad indoor air quality, giving credibility to funded research with respected members of the academic community and by using all possible resources to bring ‘research’ results to the public. This document clearly illustrates Philip Morris’s awareness of the public’s concern and the health issues regarding second hand smoke as well as its strategy to eliminate all public doubts. Though the document was created in 1989, it is still an excellent example of the tobacco industry’s initiative to manipulate the public opinion, providing deeper insight on the steps that are taken to pacify the public.
K. Jackler, Robert. "Not a cough in a Carload." Stanford University: School of Medicine. Stanford Universtiy. 4 Nov 2008
This site provides visual proof of the history of consumer manipulation conducted by the cigarette industry by using tobacco ads of the late 1920’s to early 1950’s and supplementing these with short explanations. Visuals illustrate that advertisements used ‘medical’ authority, targeted women and younger generations, made claims to purity and mildness and generally manipulated the consumer in a seemingly obvious fashion long before social awareness had been raised. Though the site solely focuses on the history of consumer manipulation, since the creator of the site, with the aid of several family members, created it to commemorate another family member’s death due to lung cancer, it still provides good primary sources . The subjective view on the cigarette companies misleading the consumers of this site is compensated by the quality of the visuals it supports its explanations with.
McDaniel, Patricia. "Philip Morris’s Project Sunrise: weakening tobacco control by working with it." University of California Postprints. 2006. University of California. 4 Nov 2008
This document deals with the analysis of Philip Morris’s ‘Project Sunrise’ that aimed to ensure the social acceptability of smoking and the company’s existence itself mainly by weakening its opponents by working with them. It gives a detailed analysis of the strategies Philip Morris developed to modify public opinion (for example, the creation of ‘truth squads’, that promoted the Philip Morris point of view in the media), its ‘counterattacks’ targeting tobacco control activists public image and the overall success of this campaign. Though this document uses overly negative terminology to describe Philip Morris’s strategy of public manipulation, all the information given was taken primarily from formerly private documents of the company itself. Overall, the strong bibliography that cites a spectrum of resources as well as the mostly objective analysis of Philip Morris’s strategy to alter public opinion from 1995-2006 make this document a very valuable source.
Moskowitz, Michael, Robert Levering, and Michael Katz. Everybody's Business: A Field Guide to the 400 Leading Companies in America. 1st Ed. New York: Doubleday, 1990.
The book not only summarizes Philip Morris’s company structure; it also explains Philip Morris’s history, global influence and social responsibility in the years leading up to 1990. It focuses specifically on the company’s tendency to strive for the ‘first place’ in all areas, as illustrated by the purchase of General Foods and Kraft, leading food companies in the U.S. In addition, it cites the work conditions of the company, which are exemplary in regard to minority groups, as well as its policy of non-acknowledgement of the blatant health issue regarding smoking. Though the book presents a fairly balanced image of Philip Morris, placing the company under the chapter named ‘Sin’ illustrates the author’s bias. Nevertheless, the book is a good source since it provides insight on the corporate philosophy, its stance in the world market in the late 20th century and its general public image, however vague some of the statements made in the book may be.
"News from the schools, February 2008." Economist.com. 27 Feb 2008. The Economist Newspaper. 4 Nov 2008
This article, though it deals primarily with the controversial issue of the usefulness of MBA degrees, also touches on the tobacco industry’s involvement in these schools. It illustrates Altria’s strategy of reaching the younger demographic by, for example, funding student groups and research programs, apparently to aid the educational system. The article uses the example of the McCombs School of Business, who stopped funding by Altria due to ethical reasons, to illustrate the tobacco industry’s false intentions. Though the article may be biased since it doesn’t consider the fact that the tobacco industry may have a genuine interest in supporting the youth of today, it still provides an excellent example of the tobacco industry’s involvement in many areas to expand its market.
Smith, Elizabeth A., and Ruth E. Malone.. "Philip Morris's Health Information Web Site Appears Responsible but Undermines Public Health." Public Health Nursing 25.6 (Nov. 2008): 554-564. Advanced Placement Source. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 5 Nov. 2008
This document deals with the false or incomplete information placed on the internet that can mislead consumers of the tobacco industry. It states that Philip Morris’s website from 1999 to 2008 had undergone important changes, from at first hardly mentioning the health issues related to smoking, to acknowledging the existence of scientific consensus on the risks of smoking to, finally, agreeing to the blatant health issue that cigarettes present (though stating this in a hardly comprehensible manner). Through the use of vague language, contradictory statements and association with health organizations whose tobacco control initiatives Philip Morris has repeatedly undermined, this website was created to mislead the consumer. The detailed analysis of the aspects Philip Morris tries to manipulate on its website is what makes this source valuable.
"Some of the "Most Wanted" Corporate Human Rights Violators." Global Exchange. 02 Dec 2007. Global Exchange. 4 Nov 2008
This website provides information on the corporations that are known to for their violations against the human rights. The site states that the Altria Group’s crime is the aggressive selling and marketing of cigarettes, which is the second major cause of preventable death in the world. The site makes certain allegations against Philip Morris and Altria in general that it does not support with sufficient examples or backed up statistics. In addition, the human rights abuses taking place in the tobacco production business are not mentioned. However, the site still provides useful information on Altria’s actions and their effects as well as information on who is working to counteract the company’s behavior.
"Tobacco Advertising Gallery." Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. 4 Nov 2008
This site provides examples of tobacco ads from all over the world. Its main purpose is to illustrate visually the massive amounts of money that goes into the promotion of cigarettes per year. It also shows, in sharp contrast, the miniscule amount of advertisements that campaign against smoking. Of course the site could be falsely portraying this balance since it obviously cannot illustrate all the advertisements for and against smoking that currently exist in the world. Nevertheless, it still is of value since it provides visuals of the presence of the tobacco industry in many forms, not only in posters.
Tozun, Ned . "Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International." Students for Informed Career Decisions. 14 July 2000. Stanford University. 5 Nov 2008
This site gives a company profile of Philip Morris up to date to 2000, clearly illustrating its pro’s and con’s as well as providing financial information. The website focuses mainly on the company’s position in regard to the environment and its policies of advertising towards the youth. The author is clearly opposed to the tobacco industry, since although Philip Morris also is involved in Kraft foods; the environmental issues of Kraft are not mentioned. The site illustrates that the primary concerns of college students today in regard to future employment lie in the environmental and social scope. However, this site still proves to be valuable since it clearly distinguishes the pros and cons of Philip Morris.
"WHO REPORT on the global TOBA CCO epidemic, 2008." World Health Organization. 2008. World Health Organization (WHO). 4 Nov 2008
This site, in addition to providing statistics and information on the tobacco epidemic as well as on what is being done/should be done against it, clearly states reasons as to why all this is to be blamed on the tobacco industry. Since this site mainly deals with world health, it focuses on smoking related statistic and aims to promote health by reducing smoking effectively. It also states that the tobacco industry’s policy of aggressive marketing and expansion is to blame, the exploitation of workers being an additional problem to this. Although it doesn’t mention that a person’s choice to smoke also plays a role in this epidemic, the information given is factual. Therefore this site, though it doesn’t mention other faults of the tobacco industry, such as its effect on the environment, is very reliable since its sole purpose is to provide accurate world statistics and health information.
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