Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116857

Junette McWilliams, MPH¹, Susan E. Middlestadt, PhD², Caryn Sweeney, MA¹, Kimberly Maxwell, PhD¹, and Jesse Gelwicks, MA¹. (1) Center for Applied Behavioral Evaluation and Research, Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Ave NW , Suite 800, Washington, DC 20009, 202.884.8219, jmcwilliams@aed.org, (2) Applied Health Science, Indiana University, 116 HPER, Bloomington, IN 47405

Public opinion polls are one of many marketing research tools used by tobacco companies. Philip Morris conducted a series of Virginia Slims Opinion Polls through the 1990's. They employ Virginia Slims Opinion Polls both as a public relations mechanism for increasing Virginia Slims' visibility and reputation as an expert on women, and as a market research tool to understand how women view themselves for marketing Virginia Slims and other brands of Philip Morris cigarettes, to existing and potential female smokers. Internal tobacco industry collections (www.tobaccodocuments.org), made available through the Master Settlement Agreement, were searched for documents pertaining to the Virginia Slims Public Opinion Poll. More than 40 documents have been analyzed, including results presentations, survey instruments, press releases, newspaper articles, and public relations statements. Documents reveal that Virginia Slims Opinion Polls are deliberately positioned as "the definitive source of information on the history of women's opinions and their changing role in society." The poll promotes Virginia Slims by increasing media coverage and reinforces the brand's independent, self-confident identity. Brand marketing documents from the same period reveal that Philip Morris was concerned with "Virginia Slims maintaining and understanding relevance to female smokers" and planned their marketing and advertising campaigns based on results from their polling research. Virginia Slims Opinion Polls not only provided information on the changing issues, beliefs, and attitudes of women in the U.S. to Philip Morris, but the social research arising from these polls can also be used to inform anti-tobacco counter-marketing campaigns for women.

Learning Objectives:

• • Describe how tobacco companies use public opinion polls to improve their company’s image, earn media, and promote sales of their brands.
• • Discuss how findings from Virginia Slims Opinion Polls were employed by Philip Morris to guide their marketing campaigns targeting women.
• • Apply the lessons learned from a textual analysis of tobacco industry research to the creation of counter-marketing strategies for female audiences.

Keywords: Tobacco Industry, Women's Health

Related Web page: tobaccodocuments.org/women/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.