Legacy Tobacco Documents Library

Monday, October 19, 2015

E-Cigarette websites captured and preserved

Did you know the average life of a website is 100 days?

Information on the web is constantly changing (reference rot) and disappearing (link rot) - sites that were there a year ago may not be there today.

Using the Internet Archive's web archiving service, Archive-It, we have been crawling, capturing and preserving websites related to the marketing of e-cigs and their equivalent in the belief that continued access to this content is vital to understanding growing usage. Much of the marketing for these products takes place online and we hope this project will provide valuable data on marketing techniques which can be used to support research, inform regulatory decisions and demonstrate industry strategies.

Come check out the UCSF E-Cigarette Web Archive and see how the major e-cigarette brand websites change over time - not only their imagery but also their language!

Thursday, October 08, 2015

Another batch of industry documents posted!

148 new documents were posted to the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents today -

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Features and Fixes:

Thanks to all of our users that provided constructive feedback over the last few months!
We have a few items we would like to point out that have come out of our conversations with you:

1) We now have more options for sorting your results -
- by the date the document was added to the industry's website
- by the date the document was added to the UCSF Truth Tobacco Industry Documents website

2) We have a new feature that allows a user to open the PDF of a document outside of the TTID site and in their own native browser. We realize many people were used to viewing/searching/printing PDFs using the PDF viewer that was configured in the browser of their choice. So we have added this feature (View --> PDF) in the "Actions" drop-down menu in the "Document View" page.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

New Industry Documents Added in September

186 new documents were added to the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents.

Includes:

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Big Tobacco and Drugstore Chains...A Long, Cozy Relationship

David Tuller and Lisa Bero's Viewpoint article in today's JAMA Oncology, doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.2621 calls out the long and very intimate relationship between cigarette companies and the retailers responsible for key public health functions such as selling prescription medications and otc health aids. Using the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, the authors found that, prior to the 2014 CVS decision, all leading chain drugstores sold not only cigarettes and related goods but had collaborated closely with tobacco companies to "boost point-of-purchase sales, test market new products, shape public attitudes toward smoking, and thwart regulatory efforts." See the documents:

Anonymous. “Letter,” Dec 8, 1971
Anonymous. “Draft response to letter,”
Drug Trade Class Plan. Philip Morris, March 1990.
Long GH. “Inter-office correspondence,” RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co., Jan 21, 1980.
Yeager J. “Inter-office correspondence,” Philip Morris U.S.A., Jan 17, 1990.
Castricone F. “Inter-office correspondence.” Philip Morris U.S.A., Aug 25, 1993.
Anonymous. “Counter Cigarette Rack Update.” Revco Store Bulletin, June 2, 1997.
Ross L. “Letter.” Kinney Drugs, Inc., Feb 21, 1994.
Mozingo RL. “Letter.” The Tobacco Institute, Jan 22, 1986.
Ortiz C. “Schenectady Tobacco Activities.” CVS memo, Dec 20, 1996.

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

LTDL becomes Truth Tobacco Industry Documents

Today, the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (LTDL) becomes the "Truth Tobacco Industry Documents." The library was named after the American Legacy Foundation, which provided funding for its creation and ongoing maintenance. On September 8, 2015, Legacy became Truth Initiative and we have updated our name to align with this change. For more information, please visit their site.

Thursday, September 03, 2015

The tobacco industry's involvement in the Olympics...and other new research out of the documents

Six (6) new articles and publications have been written using the tobacco industry documents in July and August. Read up on changing corporate narratives, direct marketing strategies and ingredients disclosures to name a few.

Article Highlight:
Lee K, Fooks G, Wander N, Fang J. Smoke Rings: Towards a Comprehensive Tobacco Free Policy for the Olympic Games. PLoS One 2015 Aug 7;10(8):e0130091.

For many years, the tobacco industry has sought affiliation with major sporting events, including the Olympic Games, for marketing, advertising and promotion purposes. Since 1988, each Olympic Games has adopted a tobacco-free policy but according to the authors, continued efforts by the tobacco industry to be associated with Olympic ideals have led to a variety of indirect associations which have undermined the Olympic tobacco-free policy.

A few key strategy documents from the archive:

Cigarette endorsements by medal winners as early as 1936 - Kit Klein "Speed Queen of the Olympics"
By the 1980s, British American Tobacco (BAT) deemed the Olympics second only to Formula One motor racing as an effective sports-based “marketing platform”
1988 statement by Greg Louganis regarding tobacco sponsorship - "I had become a slave to a tobacco company...Philip Morris representatives made it very clear that if I continued to speak out nationally [about tobacco and health], my career at, and association, with Mission Viejo [Realty Group, a PM subsidiary] would be over".
Documents suggest tobacco companies sought to sponsor Olympic broadcast coverage where no restrictions have been adopted nationally
Advertising in Olympic-themed print media
Advertising to Olympic travelers - Documents suggest tobacco companies looked for "new communication techniques" to advertise to the "large increases in passengers of the key nationalities" traveling to the games
The "Accommodation" of Olympic visitors who smoke - document 1 and document 2
Thematic advertising and implied sponsorship/partnership
Use of the Olympics to promote industry-sponsored youth anti-smoking campaigns
Sponsorship of Olympic athletes and teams - document 1; document 2; and document 3

Thursday, August 06, 2015

Just Added: New International Health Warning Labels images

260 new industry documents were posted to the Tobacco Industry Documents Library today.