There Is No Kick Butts Boycott

No Kick Butts Boycott

Due to a lack of interest from public health officials for promoting a boycott, the Kick Butts Boycott never got going. Some leaders in the public health field thought that since boycotts against the tobacco industry had for the most part failed in the past, that such efforts wouldn't be effective. Due to a lack support from public health leaders for a boycott, and also due to the fact that the largest U.S. tobacco company, Altria/Philip Morris, had spun off the non-tobacco consumer products subsidiary Kraft in March 2007, the boycott never really got started. What follows may provide you with an educational experience of how the vast majority of U.S. citizens have supported the tobacco industry without really knowing it. Since 99% of U.S. households buy products from Kraft, until March 2007 almost all U.S. citizens were in effect giving profits to Altria/Philip Morris, from their purchase of their consumer products, so that Altria/Philip Morris could more easily sell their cigarettes here and around the world. (While a very large percentage of Kraft is still owned by many of the stock holders of Altria/Philip Morris, since the Kraft stock was spun off to them, a boycott of Kraft to affect the owners of Altria/Philip Morris is even more unlikely to be effective).

However, if you don't care whether a boycott is effective or not, and if it's really a matter of conscience for you, since you don't want to give money to strengthen the tobacco companies, then the following material may be personally useful for you.



======================================================== *************** There Is No Kick Butts Boycott ***************

The following material is useful either:

1). as an educational experience,

or 2). if "it's a mattter of conscience" for you.

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A Simple, No Effort, No Sweat Way For Us To Help End The Tobacco Holocaust.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

—Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Boycott Of Consumer Products From Two Corporations Is Especially Warranted.

According to data from the Legacy Foundation, Altria/Philip Morris has a market share of about 50 percent of the underage smokers and about 50 percent of the adult smokers in the United States, while Loews/Lorillard has a market share of about 25 percent of the underage smokers in the United States. For Altria/Philip Morris, that means they are contributing to over 220,000 future deaths of our children and underage teens per year as their share, and for Loews/Lorrilard that means they are contributing to over 88,000 future deaths of our children and underage teens per year as their share. And while they try to deny their responsibility in those deaths, I think we do all know they are at least partly responsible for those massive numbers of deaths.

We have been unwittingly helping tobacco companies addict the children of our nation by buying their products. Now that we are aware of that, let’s simply, and with no effort needed, stop buying their products and buy other corporations’ brands (at least until these two targeted corporations really behave more responsibly).

You Unwittingly Help Tobacco Companies Get Their Cigarettes Into Children’s And Underage Teen’s Hands And Mouths When You Buy Their Consumer Products.

You’ll be amazed at how many brands Altria/Philip Morris owned until they spun off Kraft at the end of March 2007, and how many items you unwittingly bought that gave money to tobacco companies. Your purchase of their products better allowed them to prosper and grow—and have their tobacco products end up in the hands and mouths of the children and underage teens of our nation and the world.

What they owned until the end of March 2007

Major subsidiaries that were owned by Altria (A.K.A. (also known as) Philip Morris, which controls about 50 percent of the U.S. adult market, and also sells about 50 percent of the cigarettes smoked by children and under-aged teens in the U.S.):

• Kraft foods including Macaroni and Cheese, Kool-Aid, Cheez Whiz, Milk Bone dog biscuits, Tang and cheeses

• Nabisco foods including its cookies and crackers



• Miller beer. Note: While this product was sold to another company, through its stock ownership, Altria/Philip Morris still receives substantial profits from that business (about 29 percent of all profits from Miller beer). By boycotting the Miller beer product line, not only will Altria/Philip Morris profits be hurt, but the other company that now owns the product line will put pressure on Altria/Philip Morris to change its policy and stop working with distributors and stores that sell to minors.

Altria/Philip Morris bought the Miller Beer product line with money they obtained from the sale of cigarettes. Thus, they bought the Miller Beer product line by selling an addictive product that kills about 50% of its users, and makes the majority of the rest of the product users (and many non-users)ill. Then, they later sold it off in a deal whereby they do absolutely nothing except collect money (29% of the profits) from the sale of the Miller Beer products, while appearing to not formally own the product line.

Is it fair to boycott a product where the majority of the ownership is a different company? In my opinion it is, since the Miller Beer product line was bought and owned by tobacco money for many years, supported by that money for those years, and now contributes to the present and future wealth of Altria/Philip Morris with no further efforts, thus allowing them to better market their addictive and deadly (when used as intended) products to children and underage teens. A boycott on that product line would put pressure on the majority of shareholders of the owners of the Miller Beer Line to pressure Altria/Philip Morris to change their marketing tactics and their sales practices that actually allow the continuation of the sales of cigarettes to minors (counter to what they say). That is technically known as a perimetric boycott, which I am told has historically been the only type of boycott that has been successful against the big tobacco companies. While public health efforts shouldn't only be limited to what has worked in the past, it can be a strategy worth pursuing as "A Matter of Conscience".

Therefore, please consider boycotting all Miller Beer products to put pressure on Altria/Philip Morris to really end smoking by children and underaged teens.

Subsidiaries owned by Loews (A.K.A. Lorillard, which sells about 25 percent of the cigarettes smoked by children and under-aged teens in the U.S., the majority of which is its Newport product):

• Loews Hotels

• Bulova (including Caravelle, Accutron, Wittnaur, and Bulova brand watches)

• CNA Financial Corporation (insurance and annuity products)

• Diamond Offshore (you can sell the stock if you own it)

To find out more about Loews Corporation and to obtain their lasted list of products, click here.

It really doesn't take any effort. Simply look across the shopping isle and buy an equally good or better product from another company.

(For more information about how Big Tobacco could really stop underage smoking if they really wanted to, legal opinions from faculty from the UCLA School of Law supporting the suggested approach, and answers to reservations about a boycott, please see pages 393-399 and associated footnotes in Ending the Tobacco Holocaust.)

Further Inspiration for the Kick Butts Boycott.

Simply Put, It’s A Matter Of Conscience

A boycott of Altria/Philip Morris and Loews/Lorillard may, in fact, not work. But does that matter? Now that you have been educated by reading Ending The Tobacco Holocaust as to what these corporations have been doing, the question is this: Do you personally want to support them or not?

If you’re buying their products, you are no longer doing so unwittingly. You know you’re giving them money that boosts their profits, which in turn increases the likelihood that their products will end up in the hands of children and underage teens, and also allows them to expand the sales of their deadly and addictive products throughout the world.

So what do you personally want to do? Help corporations that are still addicting the children and under-age teens of our country and killing one fifth of Americans, or not? Use your money to wisely buy from other companies that aren’t increasing your financial burden, and aren’t making you sicker.

Even if the boycott went nowhere, what actions of yours will make you feel good? Ignoring what you now know, and continue buying products from companies that are creating effects against your best wishes… or simply buying from other companies whose actions are more aligned with your best interests?

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi