The truth about Philip Morris's Youth Smoking Prevention (YSP) program

This was an article I wrote many years ago but remains relevant to this day in the face of the tobacco companies' so-called corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.  Give me a break!  How can a tobacco company ever be "socially responsible"?  It is their IRresponsibility that is the cause of disease, disability, and death of millions of people around the world, not counting the social, economic, and environmental harms of tobacco.

We Don't Want Youths to Smoke Our "Risky" Product by Ulysses Dorotheo, 27 November 2001

Philip Morris is quick to boast that it is "actively involved in more than 130 programs in nearly 70 countries to help prevent youth smoking". One example it cites is in the Philippines, implemented together with the University of Asia and the Pacific (UAP), entitled, "I am STRONG…I am Responsible." The program, it alleges, was even endorsed by the Secretary of the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports under the previous (Estrada) government administration. According to Philip Morris, "the program's specific objective is to cultivate strength and courage among the students so that they can make responsible decisions on a variety of lifestyle issues, including smoking." A review of the program, however, reveals that for the duration of the program, high school students are indeed taught various human virtues geared toward making "responsible decisions", but that is all.

There is NO mention of the many deleterious consequences of smoking on health. There is NO mention of nicotine addiction. There is NO mention of the effects of second-hand smoke. Thus like other youth smoking prevention (YSP) programs of the tobacco industry, it is a sham. In fact, only two brief sentences in the entire program refer to smoking: "There are decisions that teenagers can make and decisions that are properly adult. For instance, smoking and drinking are adult decisions. Hence, children and youth should not smoke." Quite obviously, by labeling the decision to smoke as an "adult choice", it reinforces the wrong idea that in order to be more adult (which youths aspire to be), youths should smoke. Therefore, instead of preventing youth smoking, it actually promotes it. It also implies that smoking is harmful to youths, but it is safe if one is an adult. A conversation with the former dean of the UAP College of Education reveals even more: Philip Morris only provides funding for the program. The course content and actual implementation are purely a UAP effort. Philip Morris officials don't deny this, yet they claim that their company is "actively involved". Talk about genuine concern… Philip Morris refuses to receive any feedback on the program, supposedly so that it will not know the mindset of the program participants. Of course, we all know that any such feedback would show how ineffective it is as a YSP program. The program was started in 1998 and was supposed to end this year. Philip Morris Philippines had decided not to continue the program, but the decision from higher up (Philip Morris Asia) was to renew the contract with UAP for another 3 years. Since Philip Morris has no idea as to the (in)effectiveness of the program, its willingness to continue funding the program can only be interpreted as another public relations gimmick to help polish its tarnished image. Fortunately, the new Secretary of Education, Secretary Raul Roco, has refused outright any and all offers that Philip Morris has been making in recent months. [2010 Addendum: The new DepEd Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro would do well to steer clear of the machinations of Philip Morris and other tobacco companies.]