Extreme Corporate Makeover: Tobacco Companies

Source from:  CEOs of global corporations 06/02/2004

The growing appropriation of "corporate responsibility" by tobacco companies. EXTREME CORPORATE MAKEOVER: TOBACCO COMPANIES, CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND THE CORRUPTION OF "ETHICS" If a mobster donates to charity, does this exonerate his day job? If tyrants who oppress all opposition talk of the virtues of democracy, should anyone heed their words? When British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris Asia are prominent in promoting "corporate responsibility", such questions merit careful consideration. Each year tobacco kills 4.9 million people globally. The WHO predicts that by the 2020s it will kill 10 million annually. About a third of these deaths occur before age 65 and many, like those associated with emphysema, are preceded by years of wretched existence as current and former smokers struggle for every breath. Tobacco companies also target the world's poorest consumers, trying to have them spend their bare survival incomes on expensive manufactured cigarettes. A study calculated that in Bangladesh where BAT runs aggressive marketing campaigns, an estimated 10.5 million people currently malnourished could have an adequate diet if money that went up in tobacco smoke were spent on food instead. The lives of 350 children could be saved each day in that country alone.[1] The more tobacco companies prosper, the more people suffer and die. For over 40 years, the industry has done all it can to stop, delay and destroy any effective policy designed to reduce tobacco use. The loss of many of its best customers is the necessary corollary to the nicotine cartel's profit. Today the world's biggest tobacco companies are engaging in a massive global "rebirthing" exercise. Their leading executives are trying to convince the corporate world, governments and the public that they are not at the helm of a pariah industry but, rather, are "ethical" and shouldn't be subject to regulatory and social controls that will reduce tobacco use. BAT has funded the establishment of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Nottingham University [2]. In October 2004, Philip Morris will be a "gold sponsor" of the "Ethical Corporation Asia" conference in Hong Kong [3] and BAT a featured participant. These exercises seek to define the tobacco business as normal, ethical and responsible. An ethical tobacco company is an oxymoron. The Hong Kong conference promises to help companies 'profit' from CSR, but illness and death for millions are the sine qua non of the industry's 'business as usual'. Tobacco companies can only act responsibly by putting themselves on the road to financial ruin and discouraging consumption. That won't happen. We, the undersigned ethicists and philosophers, condemn the cynical appropriation of "ethics" by tobacco companies. We call on all businesses genuinely committed to the promotion of more ethical corporate practices to dissociate themselves from all forums and conferences that give a stage from which the tobacco industry can continue its assault on society. Enditem