Bangkok, 29 April 2024 – The tobacco industry is using corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as a tactical smokescreen to clean its tarnished public image and distract the public from its deadly and harmful business, according to the report, “Lifting the Veil of Tobacco Industry’s Corporate Charity in ASEAN” by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA). The report examines the detrimental impact of the industry’s CSR activities on public health policy.
Tobacco use kills 8 million people yearly, and to distance themselves from the death and disease caused by their products, tobacco companies rebrand their CSR initiatives with appealing descriptions such as “corporate social investment” and “sustainability initiatives.”
“These industry initiatives are fake CSR,” said Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo, Executive Director of SEATCA. “In their desire to continue profiting from their harmful, addictive products, tobacco companies exploit these activities to disguise the health, socio-economic, and environmental harms caused by their products so as to maintain a positive public image and thereby influence tobacco regulatory policy,” Dorotheo explained, citing how tobacco companies donate to schools, social welfare, and calamity relief, as if they are not a main contributor to addiction, diseases, and poverty of millions of people.
The report also exposes the tobacco industry’s exploitative labor practices, including child labor, which occur in parallel with its public support to the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT), which is governed and funded by tobacco companies.
The report also points out that in 2022, Philip Morris International’s (PMI) CSR initiatives were negligible (0.03%) compared to its USD 31.8 billion net revenue that year. Notably, as it did in previous years, the Philippines received the largest share of PMI’s charity, surpassing the cumulative CSR disbursements in all other ASEAN nations combined.
The Lifting the Veil report underscored the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’s (WHO FCTC) policy recommendations to denormalize and ban tobacco-related CSR activities, citing examples of bold steps taken by countries such as Brunei, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Thailand to implement such bans. Furthermore, it called on governments to reject partnerships with the tobacco industry and publicize their official policy of non-collaboration.
This comprehensive report to expose the tobacco industry’s deceptive tactics is part of SEATCA’s ongoing efforts to advance tobacco control and safeguard the health and well-being of ASEAN communities.
Contact Information:
Val Bugnot, Media and Communications Manager, SEATCA
Email: val@seatca.org Mobile: +639173124600
SEATCA is a multi-sectoral non-governmental alliance promoting health and saving lives by assisting ASEAN countries to accelerate and effectively implement the tobacco control measures contained in the WHO FCTC. Acknowledged by governments, academic institutions, and civil society for its advancement of tobacco control in Southeast Asia, the WHO bestowed on SEATCA the World No Tobacco Day Award in 2004 and the WHO Director-General’s Special Recognition Award in 2014.