Industry Documents Digital Library

Friday, February 10, 2017TOBACCO

New PM and Trial Testimony Documents Added

The Industry Documents Library added 147 new documents including:

109 recent depositions and trial transcripts from the Engle Progeny cases
38 Philip Morris Records

In addition, we have added 4 new papers and publications that were written using the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents - See the Bibliography for the newly added research.

Thursday, January 12, 2017TOBACCO

40K New BAT Documents Posted

The Industry Documents Library added 44,718 new tobacco documents today.

4128 RJ Reynolds Records

40,587 British American Tobacco Records - When BAT announced the closing of their document depository in Guildford, England, last year, the IDL team made an attempt to acquire any documents that were missing from our BAT holdings. We identified approx. 45,000 documents that had not been previously ordered/acquired. This is the final batch.

3 Philip Morris Records

In addition, we have added 2 new publications to the Tobacco Documents Bibliography.

Tuesday, December 06, 2016TOBACCO

Article Spotlight: Tobacco industry use of flavourings to promote smokeless tobacco products

The 2009 US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act prohibited candy, fruit, alcohol and spice flavors in cigarettes, as flavors make cigarettes easier to smoke and increase youth appeal...but smokeless tobacco was not included in this regulation. The authors analyzed tobacco industry documents related to the development and marketing of flavored smokeless products (including moist snuff, snus, loose leaf and chewing tobacco) in the USA to investigate the use of additives in smokeless tobacco and who the target audiences were for these flavored products.

Kostygina G, Ling PM. Tobacco industry use of flavourings to promote smokeless tobacco products. Tobacco Control 2016 Nov;25 (Suppl 2):ii40-ii49.

Key Documents from the UCSF Truth Tobacco Industry Documents:

Smokeless products with flavours such as peach, apple, honeydew, strawberry, pineapple, honeysuckle, champagne and prune date back to the 1870s
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/jrpf0146

Louis F Bantle, then vice president for marketing at US Smokeless Tobacco Co, said in a 1968 marketing meeting: “We must sell the use of tobacco in the mouth and appeal to young people...we hope to start a fad”.
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/hgyh0037

In 1966, FJ Triest, President of the Fries & Brother Flavour Specialists Company also recognized that sugar additives and flavorings could increase palatability to novices, and stated in tobacco trade press that flavorings such as vanilla, peach, apricot, licorice and cocoa, could act as blinding agents against 'objectionable off-flavours'
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/jmvn0046
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/ynhd0044

A B&W focus group study demonstrated a linkage between flavors and initiation noting use of flavored brands or 'candy dips' was likened to sucking on a candy or a Lifesaver by experienced users; and was considered to be characteristic of beginners; such 'candy' flavors were 'okay for little kids' but inappropriate for those who wanted a 'full, strong taste' of tobacco
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/hjpw0146

USST subsequently collaborated with Swedish Tobacco Company in the early 1970s to develop a new mildly flavored product for 'new users, mainly cigarette smokers, age group 15–35'
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/nhch0045

In addition to controlling nicotine levels, USST used flavors in the graduation strategy, describing two parallel tracks: one using mint-flavored and wintergreen-flavored brands, and one with sweeter, 'fruity' and milder 'natural' brands. USST's starter products generally fit in one of the two flavor categories: mint/wintergreen and natural/sweet flavor (eg, Skoal Bandits Mint and Skoal Bandits Natural)
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/qhff0044

RJR marketing research suggested that 'candy' brands were more highly flavored and milder than Skoal, and were 'generally designed for the new/novice category user'
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/xsmx0096

Wednesday, November 30, 2016TOBACCO

Article Spotlight: Soda and Tobacco Industry Corporate Social Responsibility Campaigns: How Do They Compare?

In light of the soda tax propositions that were on the ballot in California and elsewhere, we are revisiting an important and relevant paper from 2012 for our Article Spotlight:

Dorfman L, Cheyne A, Friedman L, Wadud A, Gottlieb M. Soda and Tobacco Industry Corporate Social Responsibility Campaigns: How Do They Compare? 2012 June. PLoS Med 9(6).

This 2012 paper, published in PLOS Med, compared the tobacco and beverage industries’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) tactics, and found striking similarities. The authors found that "soda CSR campaigns echo tobacco CSR in their focus on the consumer and in their likely intent to thwart regulation." Because sugary beverages are implicated in the global obesity crisis, major soda manufacturers have recently employed elaborate, expensive, multinational corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns. These campaigns are very similar to the tobacco industry's use of CSR as a means to focus responsibility on consumers rather than on the corporation, bolster the companies' and their products' popularity, and to prevent regulation.

Key Documents from the UCSF Truth Tobacco Industry Documents:

In 1999, Philip Morris described one CSR program [known as PM21] as "a multi-faceted, cross functional effort to change the public's perception of Philip Morris and to improve the public's attitudes toward the company and the people who work for it."
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/xqgb0077

Through focus groups, PM found that company credibility and perceptions of PM were low: "PM is still seen as a tobacco company...participants do not perceive PM as responsible." But, "credibility increased after participants learned of PM's community contributions."
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/khpj0054

In response to the prevalence of underage smoking, all of the major tobacco companies instituted 'youth smoking prevention' programs to avert increased regulation.
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/pjlk0132

"CSR campaigns can improve a firm's standing with the public and policymakers and they are potentially a powerful mechanism to forestall regulation." Philip Morris' Third Party Constituents database is an example of maintaining lists of "friends" and constituents that could be mobilized quickly to help combat a specific region's impending regulations.
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/jrlm0128

"The overall goal for the tobacco industry's CSR strategy has been to normalize its products and its corporate image"
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/qqdy0064
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/jmfj0073

Thursday, November 17, 2016TOBACCO

39,000+ Confidential RJR Documents Released and Posted

This month, IDL staff added a large set of new, previously confidential documents and rolled out our new Data Set; the entire database of IDL metadata and OCR text in downloadable files (in case you needed some light reading of 14 million+ records over the holidays). Keep reading for details...

39,642 new tobacco industry documents were added to the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents archive today:

39,512 formerly confidential RJ Reynolds documents
5 Philip Morris documents
125 Depositions and Trial Transcripts from Engle Progeny cases, some as recent as October 2016

API and Data Sets - Wondering how to download large batches of IDL records at once? How about the entire corpus of documents in IDL for use in data analysis or digital humanities projects? For researchers who would prefer to work with Industry Documents Library (IDL) metadata and OCR text from within their own database systems, these files are now available for download. Please consult our API and Data Set page for more information.

Thursday, October 27, 2016TOBACCO

8000+ New Documents Posted - New BAT and Previously Confidential RJR

8,297 new documents were added to the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents today:

2511 RJ Reynolds documents - these were originally classified as confidential but have been de-classified and are now public

6384 newly acquired British American Tobacco documents - When BAT announced they were closing their document depository in Guildford, England, last year, the IDL team made an attempt to acquire any documents that were missing from our BAT holdings. We identified approx. 45,000 documents that had not been previously ordered/acquired. This is the first batch.

17 recently captured and preserved websites for our CA Tobacco Control web archives. These websites are related to the current California Proposition 56 tobacco tax ballot measure and include official "Yes on Prop 56" and "No on Prop 56" campaign websites and videos.