With their backs to the wall amid increasingly tough regulations, as well as the looming threat of having to remove all branding from cigarette packets, tobacco companies need all the allies they can find. Who better to ask than the UK’s 10 million smokers themselves?

In a new stealth marketing campaign launched with the aid of a major lobbying firm which has waged similar offensives for rightwing causes in the US, the makers of Marlboro cigarettes are seeking to mobilise a grassroots fightback by customers against moves towards the introduction of blank packaging.

Buyers of Marlboro cigarettes have been finding messages inside their packets inviting them to visit a new campaigning website, , which describes itself as “the community for Britain’s smokers”.

Philip Morris, which also makes brands including Chesterfield and Virginia for the UK market, is running three different inserts in packets highlighting tough policies that aim to hit a nerve with smokers tax, the possibility of banning smoking in cars and homes, and how plain packaging might fuel the black market trade in cigarettes.

One insert reads “Plain packaging is the latest in a stream of proposals targeting smokers. Other excessive schemes have been suggested. Know more by learning the issues, then say no more to the government by joining our community and speaking out.”

The bottom left hand corner of the website states that it is sponsored by Philip Morris Ltd.

A background check reveals that the site is registered to Democracy Data & Communications (DDC) Advocacy, a major US lobbying firm which has become a specialist in so called stealth lobbying involving the setting up of “astroturf” websites and organisations to front campaigns that advocate for vested interests.

Its previous campaigns have included the establishment of a supposedly grassroots group called Citizens for a Safe Alexandria to attack moves by the Obama administration to prosecute Guant namo Bay prisoners in the US state of Virginia. Others have been mounted on behalf of US private healthcare giants and in support of moves by George W Bush to privatise social security.

DDC’s founder, chairman and CEO is BR McConnon, a former employee at Citizens for a Sound Economy, an anti regulation conservative political group whose offshoots have been reported to be guiding forces in the establishment of the Tea Party movement.

The Philip Morris campaign, which will run for the best part of a month, indicates that the tobacco lobby fears the impact of plain packaging on cigarette sales.

Although proposals to introduce such a measure were dropped in the Queen’s speech because of unease in Downing Street and Conservative fears of the “nanny state” label, the Liberal Democrat health minister Norman Lamb last month urged the coalition to press ahead.

A spokesman for Philip Morris said “Adult smokers and tobacco retailers in the UK face some of the strictest tobacco control regulations and pay some of the highest cigarette taxes in Europe, but typically they do not know about these policies until after they have been enacted.

“Consumers and retailers tell us that they would appreciate receiving information about public policies and government proposals that directly impact them, so we launched the Know More website to do exactly that.

“The website focuses on issues that affect retailers and adult smokers currently and potentially in the future.”

However, anti smoking campaigners say the emergence of such campaigns demonstrates the degree of distrust of tobacco companies.

Martin Dockrell, director of policy at Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said “The industry faces the same old problem that they just can’t solve who will they find to speak for an industry that kills half its users?

“This is the latest attempt to get smokers to do the work for them. This time they seem intent on keeping tight control of the messaging.

“The industry dilemma is this they hope to achieve more credibility by using organisations that look independent, but the more independent the spokesman, the less the tobacco companies are in control. This time they are mimicking online campaign sites like 38 Degrees, recruiting smokers as ‘netizens’, but retaining maximum control over the content.”

Philip Morris is the fourth biggest tobacco company in the UK, selling about 7% of the 4.4bn cigarettes sold each year, which means the inserts will run in potentially as many as 1.5m packets over the course of the campaign to raise awareness among its customers.

Philip Morris is not running the campaign in conjunction with the other “big four” tobacco companies Japan Tobacco International (JTI), Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco and is not a member of the trade body the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association.

The tobacco industry has been stepping up lobbying efforts against proposed government regulations in recent months.

The JTI UK subsidiary Gallaher, which markets brands including Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut and Camel, has run a series of ads in national newspapers attacking government policy.

The ads hit out against anti tobacco groups as well as plans for proposals including the introduction of plain packaging.

Groups including Ash and Cancer Research complained to the advertising watchdog that the content of the ads contained inaccuracies. The Advertising Standards Authority banned three ads for being misleading.

New eco-friendly cigarettes kill destructive human beings over time

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RICHMOND, VA Executives at Philip Morris USA this week unveiled Marlboro Earth, a new eco friendly cigarette that gradually eliminates the causes of global warming and environmental destruction at their source.

“By killing off the No. 1 threat to the environment, new Marlboro Earths will have a long term effect on the overall health of our planet,” Philip Morris spokesperson Janet Weiss said. “If everyone in America does their part and joins our new green smoking movement, then together we can eradicate man’s destructive practices once and for all.”

According to a press release from Philip Morris, the new environmentally friendly cigarettes work by employing powerful carcinogens that accumulate in the lungs of smokers, slowly breaking down their vital organs and eliminating the danger posed to the overpopulated planet by the human race.

Because Marlboro Earths take decades to work, the company stresses that people should start using them as early as possible, ideally during childhood or adolescence, in order to maximize the product’s effectiveness.

“We’ve got to get everybody on board, the sooner the better,” said Weiss, stressing that nothing less than the fate of the planet was at stake. “It doesn’t take much. As few as two packs of Marlboro Earths a day can make all the difference in the world.”

“Go ahead,” Weiss continued. “Light up, breathe in, and help save Mother Earth.”

An environmentally conscious smoker does his part to make a difference about once every 20 minutes or so.

Although industry research indicates people do offer some secondary benefits to the planet, such as recycling programs and wind power generators, studies have concluded these efforts fail to offset the disastrous potential of humanity.

According to Philip Morris, Marlboro Earths are the first green product to address that threat head on.

“Wildlife habitat encroachment, climate change, the exploitation of precious natural resources they can all become a thing of the past,” said James Freedman, a member of the marketing team tasked with branding the new product. “Smoke these cool, clean Marlboro Earths every chance you get, and you’ll reduce your carbon footprint to zero in no time.”

Added Freedman, “Plus, you’ll look really sophisticated and glamorous while doing it.”

The new cigarettes, released in limited test market cities over the past two months, will be ready for a national rollout in mid June. An ad campaign with the slogan “Marlboro Earth Saving the Environment One Customer at a Time” has already been launched, and the product’s iconic new packaging, which is similar to the traditional Marlboro design but also features a tree, is reportedly testing “through the roof” with consumers.

In initial product trials, the eco cigarettes have proven popular among smokers.

“I leave work three to five times a day to stand outside and help the environment,” said longtime smoker Sam Davies, an office worker in Raleigh, NC. “And the best thing about them is they make saving the planet incredibly addictive. After only a few hours, I get the uncontrollable urge to go out and help the environment some more.”

Philip Morris executives stressed that the new cigarettes, which contain the same great taste smokers have come to expect from Marlboro, but with nearly three times the tar and carbon monoxide, could make a huge difference in as little as 40 to 50 years, cutting down on urban sprawl, overpopulation, and eventually helping to enrich the soil with powerful fertilizers.