Philip Morris and Corporate Social Responsibility

We don't just measure out performance in terms of financial success. We also track whether owe measure up to the expectations that society has of us, as a major multinational company- and as a tobacco company.- Philip Morris International Website.

When speaking of Corporate Social Responsibility, the companies that inevitably come to mind are the tobacco companies. Philip Morris International and other tobacco companies are now looked at with great scrutiny and employ the means of public relations to practice corporate social responsibility.

In 1990, Philip Morris was ranked number 2 in the USA for most respected companies in Fortune Magazine. Just a few short years later, an image that would stay in the mind's eye of the world for years to come, 7 CEO's testified to not believing that nicotine was addictive.

This would end up being just the beginning of problems that Philip Morris was about to face, a public relations nightmare would ensue. Lawsuits, bad press, FDA investigations, you name it and it was thrown at the Philip Morris company. One would think that after that whole ordeal the company would have slowly sunk into oblivion, never to be heard from again. That, however, is not the case. How did Philip Morris come out the other end? One simple answer: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

Having to be fast acting, Philip Morris, entered the world of corporate social responsibility. Acting in the 'interest' of the public, Philip Morris took steps towards 'societal alignment.' Meaning they would act with the societies needs in mind and would take steps to becoming more trust-worthy in the eyes of the public. Philip Morris would begin campaigns that featured the harmful effects of smoking, offer tips on how to quit, speaking openly about their products and most importantly operating the company in a way that is corporately responsible. Since these early steps taken to improve the public image of Philip Morris, many other steps have been made as well. Such as: engaging in conversations with those that oppose the company and its means of business, admitting to mistakes, and confess to trying to build up trust and credibility. Taking even more steps, PM devised a 'best practices' guide as a means to speak about public health and tackle the issues of reducing the risk of addictions and youth usage. Now the question is, did it work? In 2003, Fortune Magazine, awarded Philip Morris, the number 4 spot on its Most Admired List for its efforts in Social Responsibility.

Questions and comments are always welcome!

Politics and PR

Complete governmental control of information? Retelling of truths into fabrications? Threats of an atomic war?

No, these themes are not coming from George Orwell's classic novel, 1984. Rather these themes are taken from the war documentary, War Spin. The documentary aims to expose the untruths told by certain governing bodies (mainly the US and UK) and uncover different propaganda messages that were used during this time of war and hardship for both countries. The documentary opens by showing the rescue, of Jessica Lynch, a 20 year old soldier, who had been taken as a prisoner of war. The rescue was cleverly filmed and excerpts of the film were immediately released all over the world, in turn sparking support of the war.



What the world would not be privy to, until months later, is the uncut footage of the rescue. The BBC aired War Spin, months after the rescue and further claimed the usage of War propaganda, by both the US and UK governments in order to win over public opinion and support the war which we are still involved with today. So how did these governments (mainly the US) successfully shape public opinion? They brilliantly employed Public Relations tactics..

Basic PR tactics such as, controlling the message and providing journalists with an inside scoop. In order to be successful in these two arenas, the governments set up a communications center, simply entitled Central Command or CentCom. This center, would be open to journalist from all over the world to go and get information as it was available straight from the government. The government took this opportunity to control the message they were giving to the journalist and would therefore be in complete control of the public opinion of the war. A few journalists were even given the opportunity to get an 'inside look' at the everyday operations of soldiers. This is another way the government was able to employ public relations tactics during the war. By offering journalists exclusive opportunities and showing the public what they were being privy to the government was able to control the message and this in turn turned out to be a great public relations move, because for a short while public opinion was in favor of the war.

While the issue of ethics behind the war are not what are being discussed here, it is reasonable to say that the tactics that were used by the differing governments during the time of war were used very effectively and hopefully throuhg this blog were examined more closely.