Leaks reveal Big Tobacco's $5M blitz

11 Sep 2010, 11:37 am   -   Source: AAP
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Cigarette companies funnelled over $5 million into a campaign against plain cigarette packaging. (Getty)

Cigarette companies funnelled over $5 million into a campaign against plain cigarette packaging. (Getty)

One of the biggest leaks against Big Tobacco in Australian history has revealed cigarette companies have funnelled over $5 million into a campaign against plain cigarette packaging.

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One of the biggest leaks against Big Tobacco in Australian history has revealed cigarette companies have funnelled over $5 million into a campaign against plain cigarette packaging.

While Big Tobacco has never denied it supports the newly-formed Alliance of Australian Retailers, which was set up in August to fight the government's plans, leaked internal documents suggest cigarette companies were involved in designing the campaign from the very beginning.
  
ABC's Lateline has obtained internal emails, invoices and contracts that reveal Big Tobacco hired a PR firm which told them to launch a campaign hidden under a third party like a retailers association.
  
Less than three months later, the Alliance of Australian Retailers was formed the same day it received over $5 million from the three biggest tobacco giants.
 
Professor Mike Daube of the Council on Smoking and Health says the documents are the most damaging Big Tobacco leaks in Australian history.
  
"What this tells us is that, far from being the innocent retailers campaign that it pretends to be, this is a campaign that has been developed, masterminded and run to the finest detail by the Philip Morris company ... in association with British American Tobacco and Imperial," he told the program on Friday.
  
A world-first in cigarette packaging
 
In a world-first, cigarettes will have to be sold in plain packages carrying large, graphic warnings against smoking by 2012.
  
In May, months before the Alliance of Australian Retailers existed, Philip Morris contacted Melbourne public relations firm The Civic Group for advice on how to fight the government's plan, the ABC says.
  
"We envision the election being a major decision point and would like to clearly understand all costs from now until election day," Chris Argent, Philip Morris' corporate affairs manager, said in one of the documents obtained by Lateline.
  
"Please note that contrary to the proposal, the coalition's `resolve' is not `strong'. It is at best neutral."
  
The Civic Group then told Philip Morris to launch an aggressive and intense campaign that builds "concern among the targeted decision makers that the campaign will not cease, it is likely to increase and that it will extract a political cost".
  
The PR firm's proposal recommended using third parties like retail groups to sell the message, the documents say.
  
Alliance of Australian Retailers formed
 
The Alliance of Australian Retailers was then formed in August, purporting to represent thousands of corner stores and shopkeepers.
  
On the day the alliance was formed, documents say it received funding from:
   - Imperial Tobacco Australia: $1,080,860.
   - British American Tobacco: $2,200,000.
   - Philip Morris: $2,161,720.
  
Philip Morris also paid The Civic Group a $200,000 a month retainer to help manage the alliance, according to the documents.
  
Lateline says it confirmed the documents are authentic by cross-referencing multiple facts contained in them.
  
The program also spoke off-camera with Brett Miller, one of the owners of The Civic Group, and he did not deny the documents are genuine.
  
A Philip Morris statement said it's disappointed the documents appear to have been obtained by illegitimate means.
  
British American Tobacco says it continues to proudly support the alliance.
  
Further documents obtained by the ABC say a second phase of the campaign is a proposed $3.9 million campaign blitz this weekend.
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Your Comments

it is black and white

patarus - from parramatta, 2 years ago

the "industry" saw this coming 15 plus years ago. i worked in the industry for several years. it was always stated that after all advertising mechanisms ceased that the GRAPHICS on the packs were paramount to brand recognition. Black and white packaging was seen as the final knife to product differentiation via the images that represented each brands identity. It is NOT surprising that they are prepared to put up HUGE sume just to defend and otherwise tenouos position. Smoke "em out.

Biggest leak in history?

David - from Indooroopilly, QLD, 2 years ago

Please forgive me if this is a dumb question, but what did you think they were going to do? I fail to see why everyone is getting so excited about this. Putting aside the question of ethics, wouldn't any industry with large pockets being threatened with potentially crippling legislation act in this way? How is this news? It looks to me like this is a case of journalists being quite out of touch with the public.

fake grassroots movements are nothing newq

Philip Machanick - from Taringa, 2 years ago

Tobacco has been at this game for decades, and passed the tricks on to the climate change denial movement. More here: http://opinion-nation.blogspot.com/2008/06/sound-science-and-climate-change-or.html

Proof of an obvious truth

Piers - from Perth, 2 years ago

Anyone who ever bought the whole "corner store" representation of that campaign was kidding themself. "I lost sales of bread and milk because of the tax increase"; and how is that supposed to work? What does it have to do with plain packaging? Nothing; what a ludicrous ploy, obviously run by Big Tobacco from the start Glad something came to light to prove it! Sadly, everyone already knows tobacco is a harmful industry and yet continues to smoke cigarettes.

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