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Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation attendees will be able to:
- Describe the tobacco industry in a less nebulous context and apply what they have learned about the behavior of its wide range of players to their work in tobacco control.
Attendees interested in better understanding the motivations and current actions of the tobacco industry. Will be of particular interest to those who wish to move beyond the historic caricature our movement has created and used as a tactic in battling the industry, and see the ‘real industry’ so as to better understand its actions and the ramifications for public health efforts.
Key Points:
- The tobacco industry behaves in understandable and predictable ways due to fiduciary obligations to shareholders, but competitive forces cause different companies to act in very different ways.
- Our movement has shaped - and along with other forces continues to shape - the behavior of the industry by changing its economic environment.
- The industry is currently going through fundamental changes; it is no longer ‘our parents’ tobacco industry’. With this morphing come opportunities as well as risks for public health.
- The industry is made up of a wide range of players, with inter-company and intra-company rivalries. We need to understand these nuances in order to best achieve our goals.
- We need to be strategic rather than merely oppositional as we deal with these fundamental shifts in the industry.
Educational Experience:
Attendees will be able to describe the tobacco industry in a less nebulous context and apply what they have learned about the behavior of its wide range of players to their work in tobacco control.
Benefits:
To be as effective as possible in our efforts to reduce tobacco caused death and disease we need to understand the overall environment in which we are working, and the various players in the rapidly morphing tobacco industry are a key part of that environment. It can be a fine tactic to talk about ‘Big Tobacco’ as though it is a single entity with laser-like focus on doing harm. But it is far better from a strategic standpoint to actually understand the current dynamics within this industry (to know the ‘real industry’) in order to effectively campaign for policy changes that better achieve health goals.