Cigarette Ads Reach Children and Teenagers-Especially Teen Girls

Cigarette Ads Reach Children and Teenagers-Especially Teen Girls

Philip Morris Philippines Company and Fortune Tobacco

The Philippine unit of Philip Morris International and unlisted Fortune Tobacco Corp will combine their core businesses in an interesting new company which is going to control 90% of the national cigarette market. Philip Morris and Fortune Tobacco made an agreement to form a new company called PMFTC, affirmed Chris Nelson, president of Philip Morris Philippines.

They said that they won’t say what the financial details are. Nelson said that they both were the initiators of the talks. The new company will command a dominant position in the local tobacco market, with Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. and Fortune Tobacco, that owned by one of the country’s richest men, Lucio Tan, having a combined share of about 90%.

Philip Morris—which is the manufacture of Marlboro cigarettes and is the world’s biggest non-state-owned tobacco firm, with over $2.4 billion earnings in Asia last year—are considering the Philippines its 12th-biggest market. Through the new firm, it gains wider access to the local cigarette market, including the profitable medium- to low-priced segments.

A joint statement said Fortune Tobacco and Philip Morris “each contributed selected assets and liabilities into the new company, with each party holding an equal economic interest.” Philip Morris will retain its export business, shipping cigarettes mostly to Thailand. It declined to give the value of the export business.

Fortune Tobacco will maintain its interest in the distribution of the Winston brand of Japan Tobacco Inc. It also said the new firm would not be affected by pending tax and ownership disputes with local courts involving Fortune.

Quitting Smoking Cigarettes and Recovery Process » Cigarette Brands - Decision Making

Quitting Smoking Cigarettes and Recovery Process

Reynolds American Foundation Help Haiti » Cigarette Brands - Decision Making

Reynolds American Foundation Help Haiti » Cigarette Brands - Decision Making

Is it OK to smoke or is it not right to do it?

Smoking cigarettes and abortion have almost nothing to do with each other, but they still have something in common: According to some surveys that were conducted by researchers, both have rising numbers among teenagers.

A lot of young persons today do not consider it all right for people to smoke, a report affirms from the Girl Scout Research Institute called "Good Intentions: The Beliefs and Values of Teens Today." The report was made on a survey of about 3,200 youths, which updated a similar survey of 5,000 youths taken for the Girl Scouts in 1989.

Both surveys asked whether it was OK to smoke "if a person finds it enjoyable." In 1989, 27 percent of youths said smoking was OK. Two decades later, only 18 percent approved. This rejection of smoking also is seen in the Monitoring the Future surveys, which have tracked substance use by the nation's youths since the mid-1970s.

In 1975, 74 percent of high school seniors told Monitoring the Future that they had smoked at least once in their lifetimes. By 2009, this fell to a record low of 44 percent. Daily smoking among 12th-graders also has tanked, falling from 27 percent in 1975 to 11 percent in 2009.

Anyone with access to a history channel can see that cigarette smoking was once ubiquitous in America. Movie stars puffed away in scene after scene. War movies showed GIs trading cigarettes like they were gold. Millions of children made ashtrays in pottery class. "Smoke-filled rooms" were where business was conducted.

Today, smoking has been banned in movie theaters, restaurants, workplaces, most homes and cars, and even the House of Representatives' Speaker's Lobby, thanks to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.