What is the “No Thanks, Big Tobacco” campaign?

“No Thanks, Big Tobacco” is a campaign to call attention to how tobacco industry sponsorships, charitable funding, and promotions hurt communities on a scale that far outweighs any potential benefits, and to urge non-profit organizations and businesses to take a stand against Big Tobacco tactics.

Who is organizing the campaign?

“No Thanks” is organized by SmokeFree Dutchess: a partnership of organizations and community members dedicated to reducing the burden of tobacco use in our community through:

• Reducing the social acceptance of tobacco
• Reducing exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke
• Promoting cessation of tobacco use
• Preventing the initiation of tobacco use among youth and young adults

The partnership is staffed and coordinated by the Dutchess County Department of Health and funded as a Community Partner by the New York State Department of Health Tobacco Control Program (TCP).

What does the campaign want to accomplish?

The campaign is asking nonprofit organizations and businesses to adopt a policy stating they will not accept any funding or charitable donations - cash or in-kind - from the tobacco industry.

What is the reason for the campaign?

Ninety percent of current smokers started before age 18. Everyday over 4,000 kids nationwide try cigarettes for the first time and half go on to become become regular smokers. About one third of all youth smokers will die prematurely from smoking-related disease. Among NYS adults who smoke everyday, 58 percent have tried to quit.

Tobacco use is still widely recognized as socially acceptable - part of the "social norm" - making it easier for kids and young adults to start smoking and harder for current smokers to quit. Tobacco industry charity represents these current and future tobacco sales: sales to committed tobacco users, sales to users who want to quit, and sales to minors and first-time users.

A goal of the NYS Tobacco Control Program (TCP) is "To decrease the social acceptance of tobacco use." A nonprofit that accepts tobacco industry charity is implicitly sanctioning tobacco use and supporting it as socially acceptable without the option of differentiating to whom acceptance is given.

What does this have to do with your organization?

Many non-profits have a mission that includes a commitment to the social and economic strength of the community as a whole and/or of special populations within the community. Tobacco use depletes both social and economic health by causing disability from chronic disease, lost productivity in the workplace, the loss of millions of dollars in health care and Medicaid costs, and ultimately the loss of lives. A policy to refuse tobacco funds will support a commitment to those you serve. In the long run this commitment can foster greater respect within the community and among like organizations in other communities.

It is already our practice not to take tobacco funds, so why bother with this?

The TCP statewide initiative and the local No Thanks campaign are similar to other efforts to build momentum for change. The act of setting policy affirms your board's commitment to No Tobacco Charity, and helps build a community consensus.

The No Thanks campaign is one path toward building a consensus that our community will be richer when tobacco is not casually accepted as part of the social landscape. Any policy that limits tobacco industry access to and influence on our community is an important step along that path.

Who else is doing this?

While this initiative is just getting underway in Dutchess County, organizations and businesses across the state and across the country are establishing policies to refuse tobacco industry donations.

Family & Children’s Services of Ithaca has joined the No Thanks campaign by adopting a policy to not accept tobacco industry funding.

Community Partners in Cortland, Herkimer and Oneida County's are working with local organizations to declare tobacco money out-of-bounds. In Broome County, The Spiedie Fest, Broome County YMCA and YWCA, Southern Tier AIDS Program, Discovery Center of the Southern Tier, Opportunities for Broome/Headstart, Boys and Girls Clubs of Binghamton and of Western Broome, and Mothers & Babies Perinatal Network, plus Tioga County Council on the Arts, have all adopted policies to not accept tobacco industry funding.

Does anyone even get tobacco money?

Some of the most prominent recipients of tobacco industry donations are NYC-based arts organizations, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Museum of Modern Art.

Closer to home, in 2004 Altria - parent company of Marlboro maker Philip Morris - gave $150,000 to Visiting Nurse Service of Rochester and Monroe County, gave $23,400 to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County, and gave $30,000 to Vera House Inc. in Syracuse. In 2003 Altria gave $25,000 to the National Audubon Society in Albany, and gave $15,000 to Garth Fagan Dance of Rochester in each of 2003 and 2004.

How could charitable giving by tobacco companies hurt anyone? They’re just trying to help.

Sponsorships and charity are increasingly important marketing tools for tobacco. The 1998 Master (Multistate) Settlement Agreement (MSA) between states and tobacco companies put a stop to many of the industry's most notorious and aggressive marketing tactics. Yet, domestic cigarette marketing and promotion expenditures still reached a record $15.1 billion in 2003, much of it targeting youth. For the tobacco industry, community giving is a quiet — and critical — way to get the company name and products out in front of target markets, to begin to reverse the widely negative public image of the industry, and to build political support for their causes among community leaders.

If we do this, wouldn’t we alienate smokers, especially current donors who smoke?

The majority of adults in Dutchess County do not smoke or use any tobacco. Statewide, 79 percent of New Yorkers favor the Clean Indoor Air Act, which banned smoking in all workplaces including bars and restaurants. Among those New York adults who smoke every day, 58 percent have tried to quit.

These numbers suggest that you may be as likely to gain the respect of a former smoker, a smoker who wants to quit, or someone who strongly favors smoke-free air as you are to lose the respect of a committed smoker. Ultimately, however, individuals and an organization’s board are most likely to base their relationship with an organization on shared values and the work the organization does in the community.

What companies are considered to be a part of the tobacco industry?

For the purposes of our No Thanks campaign, the “Tobacco Industry” includes those businesses and corporations engaged in the production, manufacture, importation, packaging or primary marketing and distribution of tobacco products. This includes, but is not limited to, tobacco product manufacturers Altria, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Sante Fe Natural Tobacco Co., Lorillard, Liggett and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco (UST.)

Some organizations or agencies may also chose to recognize subsidiary companies and corporations as part of the tobacco industry. Companies and brand names which are owned by the product manufacturers' parent corporations include Kraft Foods, CNA Financial, Loews Hotels (not Lowes Home Improvement or Loews Movie Theaters), Bulova watches, and Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest wines.

Your organization may decide to define the tobacco industry in a more limited, or a more broad way.

What is our next step?

SmokeFree Dutchess has prepared a sample policy against accepting money from the tobacco industry. Members of your board may review the sample document and, based on the information in this Q&A and discussions among those with a role in policy decisions, you may adopt the sample policy as is or make changes before voting on the policy. Please feel free to contact us at SmokeFree Dutchess with any additional questions.