In 2014, Altria Group contributed $10 million to the rehabilitation of the Landmark Theater and to have the name changed to “Altria Theater.” A staple of the city, the theater had hosted the likes of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and The Grateful Dead and served as a landmark for Richmonders and tourists alike. The Altria Group CEO, Centerstage CEO, and Mayor of Richmond unveiled the new theater together, symbolically demonstrating the unity of Richmond's largest company and the city’s leaders.
The intended message to Richmonders was clear: the city’s hallmark company was a good corporate citizen, committed to improving the arts and education in its hometown.
Meanwhile, the company once called Philip Morris, and rebranded Altria in 2001, disguised its main business: making and selling cigarettes.
Selling Sports, Smokes, and Cool
This was not always the case. Between the 1960s and 1990s, Phillip Morris, along with other major tobacco companies, connected smoking with youth, cool, and professional sports in the public imagination. Using public icons such as world champion race car driver Al Unser Jr. as spokesmen and human billboards, Phillip Morris associated its brands with the success of the athletes it sponsored. Women as well as men were the subjects--and targets--of the ads. To go along with its popular “You’ve come a long way, baby” campaign, the company created the Virginia Slims Tennis circuit and held its first women’s tournament in Richmond in 1972, with international icon Billie Jean King as the face of the tournament.
Who Said Smoking was Bad?
Tackling revelations linking smoking with cancer, such as the 1964 Surgeon General’s report, big tobacco companies worked to combat negative perceptions of smoking. They redirected public attention to images of smokers as physically fit, young, and having fun.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a rising anti-smoking movement began to make traction. Catalyzed by the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1970, the “cigarette wars” between tobacco companies and the anti-smoking movement emerged as a fight over the newly recognized dangers of smoking.
A Tactical Retreat
In 1986, a new Surgeon General Report confirmed the dangers of cigarettes, and in 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that “second hand” smoke was also hazardous. The report detailed hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by the dangers of secondhand smoking. At the same time, whistleblowers within the tobacco companies brought to light thousands of internal documents showing that Big Tobacco companies targeted teenagers and added the addictive ingredient nicotine into their products. In the face of these revelations, 46 states sued the major tobacco firms, resulting in the Master Settlement of 1998.
Facing increased federal and state regulations, Phillip Morris retreated and developed a new marketing strategy, at least within the United States. In 1998, Philip Morris spent $158 million on a new advertisement campaign, “Things Are Changing.”
New Name... Same Philip Morris?
The new Philip Morris, repackaged as Altria Group, aims to redefine their corporate image by dissociating themselves exclusively with tobacco.
Altria Group released an advertisement series that directed viewers to their website where they highlighted the dangers of smoking and how to quit smoking and prevent youth smoking. Altria Group’s corporate image was destined to improve, as they constructed a new narrative that tobacco companies support public health movements.
The new strategy aimed to partner influential community members with smoking such as community activists, mothers, and pop culture figures.
Today, this playbook has been employed in their selling of vaping products. As recently as 2019, Altria Group cancelled a campaign to use Instagram influencers to promote their new vape, IQOS, due to allegations of targeting youths. Tip-toeing the line of legality, Altria Group will continue to adapt their advertising strategies as their products and legislation change.
