Philip Morris Magazine 890300 - 890400 the Best of America

Philip Morris Magazine 890300 - 890400 the Best of America

This Philip Morris (PM) document is a conglomerate of several documents. The first part is a 1989 copy of Philip Morris Magazine, which cheerfully provides health-related information like recipes for spinach salad and an article about a bicycle marathon, all while touting "smokers rights." The rest of the document consists of memos, faxes, a quantification of all the solid waste generated by PM and the rest of the tobacco industry (and how much or little of it is recycled) and the text of a speech delivered by Ellen Merlo, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Philip Morris, on January 25, 1994 at a vendor's conference.

In her speech, which begins on Bates Page No. 2040236560 (Page 76 of the document) Merlo describes the ASSIST Program and the threat it poses to the tobacco industry, and PM's strategy to push its Accommodation Program into the hospitality industry while simultaneously altering the legal landscape to eliminate people's rights to enact local smoking restrictions. Merlo describes Philip Morris' motivation for fighting smoking restrictions:

"If smokers can't smoke on the way to work, at work, in stores, banks, restaurants, malls and other public places, they are going to smoke less..."

Merlo also describes PM's intent to make Atlanta, Georgia into its "model accommodation city" in advance of the city's hosting of the Summer Olympics.

Merlo describes PM's otherwise reasonable-sounding "Accommodation Program" as a "tactical weapon" to be employed to support preemptive legislation that PM drafts and pushes through state legislatures:

"Ultimately, we will use the Accommodation Program as a tactical weapon to support the preemptive state accommodation/indoor air quality legislation that I mentioned earlier."

Later in the document, Steve Parrish of PM states that it is PM's goal to enact preemption in all 50 states.

Quotes from the document:

[From Page 82 of the document, Page 7 of Merlo's speech, Bates No.2040236566]

Now let's move from marketing restrictions to smoking bans. If smokers can't smoke on the way to work, at work, in stores, banks, restaurants, malls and other public places, they are going to smoke less. A large percentage of them are going to quit. In short, cigarette purchases will be drastically reduced and volume declines will accelerate..."

Ultimately, we will use the Accommodation Program as a tactical weapon to support the preemptive state accommodation/indoor air quality legislation that I mentioned earlier.

This legislation establishes smoking areas and, because it is preemptive, it means that those areas cannot be eliminated by local fiat ...

... The Atlanta case is especially interesting, because we want to establish Atlanta -- with its strong tradition of hospitality -- as a model accommodation city.

Atlanta, as host of the upcoming Summer Olympics, will have the world spotlight turned on it. International travelers are often smokers and are equally often surprised at the lack of tolerance they find in the U.S. on the part of anti-smokers.

We are working now to extend The Accommodation Program to every venue in Atlanta. The state restaurant associations that belong to The Accommodation Program and use its materials represent a very strong coalition. We are involved in creating others -- beginning with other hospitality industries like the hotel industry...

Ultimately, we will use the Accommodation Program as a tactical weapon to support the preemptive state accommodation/indoor air quality legislation that I mentioned earlier.

This legislation establishes smoking areas and, because it is preemptive, it means that those areas cannot be eliminated by local fiat...Last year, we began promoting the adoption of this kind of preemptive legislation in selected states, and we will continue this effort on a broader scale in 1994...As you may know, we have a network of regional government affairs directors out in the field, and one of their priorities this year is to make the case for this kind of legislation with legislative leadership in those 22 target states.

Title	 PHILIP MORRIS MAGAZINE 890300 - 890400 THE BEST OF AMERICA Org. Author	 PHILIP MORRIS MAGAZINE; PM, PHILIP MORRIS Date	 19890315/P (March 15, 1989) Type	 Magazine article Bates	 No. 2040236324A/6324AV URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/gku23e00

search_term="Accomodation Program"