Summary in English

Each time you buy a new pack of cigarettes you support an industry
that makes its living by making you an addict. But YOU have the power to do what they fear most, stop buying their products!

Secret industry documents
The release of millions of pages of tobacco company internal documents as a result of litigation in the United States has offered the most startling insights into what really goes on inside the major multinationals tobacco companies.

This campaign presents a few small samples of information about the tobacco industry and its products. This should be enough for you to reconsider whatever view you had on this industry. To illustrate our message, we have selected some of the most infamous and outrageous quotes from the tobacco industry itself.

Tobacco Industry Quotes
Since the 1960s, the tobacco companies have known that nicotine is addictive, but they’ve kept it a secret. As late as 1994, the chief executive officers of the biggest tobacco companies were very clear:

“I believe that nicotine is not addictive...

Seven CEO’s from the four majors tobacco companies in USA testified as late as in 1994, that they did not believe that nicotine is addictive. However, the industries own internal documents show that they have known about the addiction since the sixties! The industry documents reveal that they actually look at them selves as “nicotine-salesmen”:

“We are in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug”

Through this campaign we want to show you, that the actions (or lack of actions) of the tobacco industry are not random. Our goal is to make you aware that there is conscious strategic thinking behind the production, marketing and selling of this product. There are thousands of pages of internal tobacco industry documents that prove that there are several shocking facts that this industry has been trying to hide from us.

These tobacco industry quotes provide some examples of the cynical reality
To keep people from stop smoking and stop buying tobacco, the tobacco industry makes sure it’s hard. Really hard. They manipulate nicotine levels, and nicotine is in fact more addictive than heroin:

“Smoking tobacco is more addictive than using heroin”

Ammonia and other chemicals have been added to the tobacco so the nicotine will be absorbed more rapidly and effectively into the bloodstream. Since pure nicotine has a harsh and unpleasant flavour, sugar and other sweeteners are added to make inhaling possible. When you keep buying tobacco, you keep sponsoring an industry that chemically manipulates their product to make you hooked:

“The secret of …………. is ammonia.”

The tobacco industry does not want young people to smoke, and insist that they only target adults. However, internal industry documents have revealed strategies specially designed to market cigarettes to teenagers. The tobacco industry realizes that the young represent tomorrow’s cigarette business. As this 14-24 age group matures, they will account for a key share of the total cigarette volume- for at least the next 25 years… “They got lips, we want them” and

“If you are truly not going to sell to children, you will be out of business in 30 years..”

For decades the tobacco industry tried to deny the health risks connected to smoking. This can no longer be denied. The connection between smoking and serious conditions like lung cancer is undeniable. A cigarette contains over 4000 chemical substances, some found naturally in tobacco and some added. One of the biggest multinational tobacco companies decided to share with us that the society actually saves money, as people die younger because of smoking! Cancer seems to replace wars and famines as a “natural” cause of death, to keep the population down:

“…with a general lengthening of the expectation of life we really need something for people to die of.”

When the tobacco companies face regulations in the western world, they move to new markets. These are countries where any kind of marketing is allowed, where the health risks are less known, and where there is no minimum age for buying cigarettes. A tobacco industry representative said in 1998: “Thinking about Chinese smoking statistics is like trying to think about the limits of space.” They also said:

“We don’t smoke the shit, we just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid...”



Have a look at our new campaign film spots here.