News analysis

WORLD: DISASTERS ARE ‘BRAND AID’ OPPORTUNITIES FOR TOBACCO Philip Morris subsidiary Sampoerna’s sponsorship of a rescue camp for evacuees from the slopes of the erupting Mount Merapi in Java highlights how the tragicomedy of tobacco industry corporate social responsibility thrives in disaster-hit regions of the world. Sampoerna is reported to have paid for the camp, its aid workers, who wear red and black uniforms with company logos, and the branded four-wheel drive cars and trucks that are parked on its perimeter. The team is one of several aid efforts organised by large Indonesian corporations in response to Merapi’s most violent eruptions for over 80 years. Early reports put the death toll at more than 250 people, with a further 150 000, mainly rural peasant farmers, reported to have been displaced. Aid workers claim that Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency was unprepared to cope with the large numbers displaced, providing corporate disaster relief teams with an ideal opportunity to augment the government’s efforts to house, clothe and feed evacuees. Representatives of the companies working on the mountain are reported to have said that their efforts are entirely altruistic, and have rejected suggestions that they are blurring the boundaries betweenaid and marketing. Local residents, however, remain unconvinced and have questioned why the companies can’t justuseunbranded vehicles and clothes. This is a fitting question in a country where tobacco kills an estimated 200 000 people each year and where three-quarters of Indonesian smokers are thought to start before the age of 19. Donations for crises help tobacco companies in a number of ways. They can enhance a company ’s reputation with smokers and non-smokers alike and create goodwill among influential groups, such as journalists and policymakers. Companies in other sectors are on record as saying that they provide a great opportunity to work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who would otherwise be opposed to working with businessdsomething the tobacco industry has been trying to do with mixed results for the best part of a decade. Sampoerna’s decision to brand its aid also underlines the emphasis tobacco companies place on getting the highest returns on their CSR investments. In September 2009, Duty Free News International (DFNI) online reported Imperial Tobacco’s plans to launch a charity initiative at the 2009 Tax FreeWorld AssociationWorld Exhibition in Cannes. Imperial invited suppliers to the stand to enter a draw to win a luggage set, promising €50 (US$67) to victims of the recent floods in Pakistan and India each time someone took part. DFNI’s readers were told of a special wall display which would show the ongoing donation total. Imperial Tobacco director, Graham Bolt, was also given an opportunity to represent his company as a leading philanthropic voice in the exotic world of travel-retail. ‘The travel-retail industry’, he said, had “always been generous and responsive to people that are affected by natural disasters and we ask all our partners to consider those less fortunate in their time of need.” To reassure its readers that this was no scam and that Imperial was paying a fair sum for the publicity, DFNI reported that the company had pledged to donate a minimum of €10 000 (US$13 700) to charitydabout half the amount the company ’s chief executive received for his company car and health insurance in 2008. Another recent example indicates thatdwith the right schemedpositive publicity can be generated with almost no upfront investment. Swedish Match recently reported a cash donation to The Salvation Army in response to Australia’s 2009wildfire disaster, theworst in a quarter of a century. When asked about the size of the donation, a spokesperson for the Charity reported that they had receivedAus $500 (US$470) or one ten thousandth of aper cent of the company’s operatingprofit. In 2001, Philip Morris’s spend on advertising its charitable donations was reported to exceed the donations themselves. These recent examples indicate that maximising reputational and political capital from its community investments continues to guide tobacco industry philanthropy.