Tobacco & Whacko!

love!
Tobacco giants have suddenly become generous. Notice there recent years philanthropy. Quit smoking!! Youth de-addiction in developed countries ( or more appropriately, where the tobacco companies were taken to task by the courts) .

Now look at these statements :

1) “Nothing is more important than our commitment to integrity – no financial
objective, no marketing target, no effort to outdo the competition… Our commitment to integrity must always come first." Chairman & CEO of Altria Group

2) “Global deaths due to smoking-related illnesses will nearly double by 2020, to 9 million,
with more than three-quarters of them in the developing world.” – World Health Organization

The funniest yet most disturbing thing to look at is "Altria". whats Altria ? A background : After the slues of cases were filed in US and Europe, Philip Morris the largest tobacco giant in the world ( hence, presumably directly or indirectly responsible for smoking related deaths) changed its parent company's name to Altria , to save itself from the negative impact of image of tobacco related business and heavy criticism. Altria's revenue was $90billion !

Philip Morris then turned its head and marketing strategy towards developing countries, with 930 million of 1.3 billion of total world population. Ahh! that makes sense ! Targeting the new ( mostly young) customers with increasing purchasing power.

Besides these the company has a history of opposing organized labour. That's so lovely, mr. chairman, specially talking about integrity .

So my friends ! this is just one of the stories of one of the big corporates in the world. there are many like Philip Morris whom we knowingly and mostly unknowingly endorse .

Think before singing praises about these companies ( just because they have money, specially relevant to most "intellectual India ", your son or daughter maybe the bull's eye.

cheers pk