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Domain: philipmorrisusa.com
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Comments · 14
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Re:Cool story bro
Arsenic is natural. Tobacco is natural. Multivitamins are artificial.
Yes there are "natural" tobacco products with no artificial additives, but can you call this natural?
And natural usually means bad, mmkay? Death by childbirth or tetanus or angry goat by the time you're 35. It might still be better than being deliberately poisoned though. -
Re:Philip Morris LIES
the cigarrettes they've been selling for decades -- are "unsafe". And they've been doing everything they can to deny that blindingly obvious fact.
Wha? You've got to stop smoking crack. Maybe you should consider smoking cigarettes instead (yuck). One click into their site ( http://www.philipmorrisusa.com/en/health_issues/de fault.asp?source=home_fca1 ), you'll find this:
Philip Morris USA agrees with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases in smokers. Smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, like lung cancer, than non-smokers. There is no safe cigarette.
The whole page is filled with short paragraphs like that, all linked to longer articles. They even link to numerous surgeon general reports and such.
Cigarettes may be icky, but that's no reason to spread FUD, propoganda, and lies. -
Re:Still Safe?
Did you think that? Are you living in the 80s or something?
There is no safe cigarette - Philip Morris -
Re:There already is a safer cig: Eclipse!
Phillip Morris... Surely not the same company as I am thinking about... (I think the naming is a little more than a coincidence)
http://www.philipmorrisusa.com/en/home.asp -
And in other news
In other news, Philip Morris acquires Pfizer's Nicotrol divison.
Story at eleven. -
Astroturf de Tocqueville InstituteAs part of the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Philip Morris (PM) agreed to release millions of documents about their operations. These detail how ADTI was hired by PM to conduct a public relations campaign against the Clinton health plan in 1994. ADTI provided PM with regular progress reports to prove that PM was getting value for its money, so they also let us see how these campaigns are conducted.
The Clinton plan included an increase in taxes on cigarettes from 24c per pack to 99c. Understandably, PM was not in favour of this, so a Philip Morris executive suggested an astroturf campaign, writing to one of his people:
Having just read the Washington Post with a series of provocative articles about Canada cutting taxes, CBO estimating higher costs AND job loss from the Clinton plan and then our old favourite, former president current homebuilder, Jimmy Carter explaining why higher taxes will help tobacco farmers, it occurred to me that we ought to turn a few of our better letter writers loose to blitz the targeted states with letters to the editor about Clinton, Carter and Canada...
If you want some astroturfing done, who you gonna call? The Alexis de Tocqueville Institute:David N & I think the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute is perfect for this kind of thing. We are working with them on a proposal.
And here is their proposal:
And over the next two months ADTI ran a PR campaign against the Clinton plan. For the benefit of PM they documented all their activities. All the details are here.Our three key executives, Cesar Conda, Bruce Bartlett and myself, will run this campaign and we will devote the full energies of our operation and its consultants to this task. We plan to activate our key Advisory Board Members, including Jack Kemp, Robert Kasten, Dick Armey, Michael Boskin and others to mount a public awareness campaign immediately (see enclosed list of Center on Regulation and Economic Growth participants).
As you can see from our press in recent months, we are in a position to deliver. We would like to request $60,000, or $30,000 a month, to implement this program.
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It's All About the Hearts and MindsBig media propaganda like this may work in a small sector of society, but it seems consumers are slightly unsatisfied with how the big media companies are handling things. And when the people aren't happy, economics dictates that they do what they have to do to get happy, in this case, pirate. I watch Survivor, all those pirate dudes love it there. Piracy is your friend. Now, I'm not condoning piracy, but the fact is, the corporations and the customers both have a responsibility to defend their respective positions, and to prevent the other power group from stealing too much control and upsetting the fragile and beautiful balance we call crapitalism. The system only works if both sides are doing their jobs, and that is:
Customers: Shop wisely. You are voting with your dollars. If you accept draconian DRM, you will NEVER get your freedom back. You must protect your individual rights by choosing the best product and not buying based solely on emotionally exciting advertising hype or getting pushed around by impotent corporate shortcuts to profitability.
Corporations: Adapt to the changing environment as you have always done. Listen to the customers and do everything possible to keep these informed consumers on your side. Search for innovative ways to improve your product, streamline your processes, and still make a REASONABLE amount of money. Stay alive to serve the customers tomorrow.
Here's a quick rundown of some of the main gripes consumers have with big media products today:
Things Wrong with Movies: Overpriced movies to match the overpriced snacks, Ben Affleck and J-Lo, crappy plots (which also may fall under the Ben Affleck category), $20+ million dollar salaries for actors which leads to increased ticket prices, irritating and useless copy-protection on DVDs, etc.
Things Wrong with Music: Overpriced CDs, Britney Spears, not enough money given to the artists, Britney Spears, generic one-hit wonder boy bands pushed like a cheap drug, Britney Spears, general refusal to adapt to the internet (thank Apple for what innovation there is there), etc.
Things Wrong with Satellite: Well, nothing.... We're just stealing that because we can.
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Re:Lawsuit
You are exactly right. In business, one can do pretty well just by not making catastophic mistakes. Sooner or later your competitors will, and the market will eliminate them for you. The Linux community is doing M$ a big favor by copying the Windows interface, which will have exactly the effect that you mention. Linux will become the K-Tel not-the-original-artists crap knock-off product that the general public will avoid.On the other hand, there is an original, very powerful, intuitive Linux UI that I use every day. It happens to be rendered by my TiVo. While Linux is fun to tinker with, that is irrelevant to me from a business perspective since I write software and enjoy this kind of activity. When non-tech people ask me what kind of PC to buy, I tell them to watch the Dell site for deals and buy the lowest cost XP machine that suits their needs. Why? Easy: it will run the software they already have, easy to install new hardware since drivers aren't a problem (generally), and lots of "idiots" and "dummy" books to explain the basics.
I tell the M$ haters to go buy a white box at the local hole-in-the-wall and load Red Hat. Then they find out it doesn't run some esoteric program they have and complain. In the end, they refuse to buy XP and give M$ the money, they can't get their dog weight estimator software for Linux, so they stick with '98 or '95! The best thing about Linux ideas is that they keep M$ spooked, which means M$ isn't going to turn stupid the way IBM and all of the moronic *nix companies did in the 80s-90s.
From a business model perspective, Linux is best suited for mass-produced hardware devices where cost is a major consideration. All the talk about KDE/Gnome/XPde, etc is just a re-hash of the time when Windows 3.1 came out and Sun, HP, IBM and others were pushing their UI of the day. -Been there done that-
Speaking of Sun "Innovation-Through-Litigation" Microsystems, who are they going to sue next? Philip Morris? Gee, if they could get the Java VM shipped with every pack of Marlboros, they might actually make money on Java!
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Re:Marketing Idea
Sorry, but I believe these guys already have patented the idea.
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Keebler is NOT owned by Kraft/PM/Altria
Keebler is owned by NABISCO!
Keebler.com's brands page, I see no evidence of any affiliation with Kraft Foods, Nabisco's parent company. In turn, Kraft's parent company is Altria.
I don't buy Nabisco because 1. I don't like to support big tobacco and big booze (two other divisions of Altria), and 2. I simply prefer Keebler's products to Nabisco's.
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You seem suprised by the stupidity of OL users...
When those same people regularly bring things that are proven to be dangerous into their homes and they are often ambivalent or even supportive, to say the least, about products which have been statistically shown to lower life expectancy. They will rise up against the laws requiring safe operation of a product and cry "They are taking my liberties away!" Why should (l)users behave any differently when it comes to software? (And for that matter, is it fair to hold software companies to some higher standard of conduct, when other clearly defective products get special legal protection?)
I agree, the script kiddies and software authors are both culpable - but the idiot users aren't exactly innocent. People use Outlook for the same reason virus writers do - because it's easy, and to hell with the consequences.
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In other news...In other news, Philip Morris has announced plans to settle lawsuits filed against it for smoking related deaths and illnesses. The cigarette maker tentatively has agreed to a five-year project to provide cigarettes and other tobacco-related products to more than 14,000 of the poorest schools in the U.S., resolving most of its pending private class-action lawsuits, lawyers and academics briefed on the case said. Many details of the complex agreement still were being worked out Monday night, but the estimated cost to Philip Morris will be about $1.1 billion, with additional support coming from other contributions, these people said. Philip Morris has $36 billion in cash on hand.
According to lawyers and others briefed on the deal, Philip Morris would provide tobacco products valued at about $900 million over five years to schools where most students qualify for free federal lunch programs. Philip Morris also would be responsible for making available 200,000 reconditioned ashtrays and tobacco pipes during that period, $90 million in teacher training and $38 million in technical support. It would provide as much as $250 million to set up an independent foundation to meet project goals, and would seek an additional $200 million in matching funds.
If the settlement goes through, Philip Morris's brand name and products will gain even greater presence in the nation's schools. Some of the lawyers in the class-action cases were uncomfortable with this but concluded that Philip Morris's monopoly already is so pervasive that students would have to learn to use their products anyway.
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Re:Biting Satire? The article is LAME.
Some people swear Marlboro cigarettes taste better.
Not to drift off-topic here, but Marlboro cigarettes really do taste better (I smoke them). Not only that, but anybody who's a Marlboro smoker will have a tough time switching to anything else, because of all the crap they put in them. Marlboros are the only cigarettes that will satisfy my craving because, not only am I addicted to the nicotine, I'm addicted to the other shit they put in there too.
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Re:Vote Libertarian!
I'm all about legalizing drugs, but I'd rather grow my own stash then have the goverment or big corperations grow it? Why do I say this? Look at this. 400 additives in cigarettes. Imagine what the corperations would do to pot if they were the ones growing it.
Ok, good point. I'd want that too, and it looks like that's going to be the way it is in Canada real soon now...
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