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For Immediate Release: June 18, 1997
Guerrilla Media accepts the du Maurier Jazz Festival challenge
The gloves are coming off as members of Guerrilla Media (GM) gear up for their fourth season of anti-tobacco campaigning. In this first round, GM is kicking off its annual smoke-out-the-sponsors effort by taking up the du Maurier Jazz Festival's challenge to debate their organizers in public.
"Last year, Vancouver Jazz Festival director Bob Kerr said we didn't have the guts to debate his society's decision to take tobacco company blood money," says GM spokesperson Ann Ominous. "Well, not only do we have the guts, but we also have the facts that back up our claims that tobacco companies use their sponsorship campaigns to attract new tobacco addicts. We will debate this issue anytime, anywhere."
Here are just a few facts behind the sponsorship smokescreen:
Number of Canadian children under age 16 who became addicted
to tobacco in 1996:120,000
Based on market share, the number of Canadian children
addicted by du Maurier in 1996: 28,000
Proportion of these children unable to quit who will
eventually be killed by tobacco: 50%
Average age that a smoker starts: 13 years
Percentage of smokers addicted by the age of 19:
90%
According to a 1994 Health Canada study, proportion of
children ages 10 to 14 who believe that tobacco sponsorship
advertisements promote a particular brand of cigarettes:
75%
The
du Maurier Challenge:
"I'd be willing to debate the issue [of tobacco company
sponsorship] with them publicly." - Festival director
Bob Kerr, Georgia Straight, June 27, 1996
The
Guerrilla Media Response:
"We welcome Kerr's suggestion of a public debate on the
issue of tobacco sponsorship of cultural events, and will
take him up on his invitation in the future." - GM
spokesperson Ann Ominous, unpublished letter to Georgia
Straight June 28, 1996
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based group of cultural critics who are
continually amazed that Bob Kerr and other tobacco-funding
addicts can say with a straight face that they don't believe
tobacco sponsorship of their cultural events is in any way
connected with promoting tobacco products.
Right.
l
For Immediate Release: June 20, 1997
"Children As Seen By" posters reveal du Maurier's real target market
On Vancouver streets today, round two of Guerrilla Media's (GM) campaign to smoke-out-the-sponsors began as the corporate-monkeywrenchers unveiled a different version of the familiar du Maurier ads.
"We just wanted to introduce a little truth in advertising to mark the beginning of the du Maurier-sponsored Vancouver Jazz Festival," says GM spokesperson Noam de Plöm. "After all, 40,000-plus dead Canadians each year (from tobacco-related illnesses) can't be wrong."
In GM's updated version of their 1995 anti-du Maurier poster titled "Children As Seen By," a youngster is targeted in the crosshairs of a rifle scope. Underneath the image, statistics tell the truth about the du Maurier brand's impact on Canadian kids and debunks the company's self-styled role as good corporate citizen. The revised poster includes a new fact: 75% of children ages 10 to 14 believe tobacco sponsorship advertisements promote a particular brand of cigarettes (1994 Health Canada study).
"The American tobacco industry is already reeling from the devastating contents of internal documents pertaining to the Liggett deal, showing how that company targetted children as part of its marketing strategy," says de Plöm. "This type of promotional tactic is hardly surprising. For an industry that loses a significant portion of its market to cancer and other cigarette-related illnesses each year, they have to be marketing to new users - namely kids."
Just as damaging as any Liggett document, du Maurier's very own 1988 Tobacco Marketing Plan reveals how the company is aware of the need to addict children. According to this telling document, du Maurier describes the importance of "maintaining their relevance to smokers in these younger groups."
"It's a real shame that arts groups like the Vancouver Jazz Festival continue to collaborate with these death merchants," says de Plöm. "However, as long as these agencies continue to take du Maurier's blood money, more children will become hooked. In the long run, we all pay through higher health and social costs while tobacco companies continue to make record profits."
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based group of cultural critics who
would like to know what all those well-paid executives who
head up tobacco-funded arts groups like the Coastal Jazz
& Blues Society intend to do when the cigarette money
dries up. Maybe they should practise saying, "Would you like
fries with that?"
l
For Immediate Release: June 24, 1997
Protesters challenge du Maurier-sponsored Hogtown jazz festival
Round three of Guerrilla Media's campaign to smoke-out-the-sponsors is well under way as members of AIM, a Toronto-based group of anti-tobacco activists, challenged du Maurier's addiction marketing in that city.
"According to AIM spokesperson Tom Corbit, his group is plastering urban neighbourhoods in Toronto with 2,000 copies of our 'Children as Seen By du Murder' poster," explains GM spokesperson Beau Gus Monniker. "As well, the activists have been altering du Maurier billboard and bus shelter ads in their efforts to draw attention to the issue of tobacco-sponsorship of the arts."
AIM's actions follow quickly on the heels of GM's campaign in British Columbia. Both groups are targetting ongoing du Maurier-sponsored jazz festivals that are taking place in Toronto and Vancouver. Since Friday, June 20, nearly 3,000 "Children As Seen By" posters have been distributed on Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster streets.
"Arts and sporting groups like the Vancouver and Toronto jazz festivals have put their funding eggs in the wrong basket," says Monniker. "If these groups had bothered to lobby for a funding agreement involving a 2 cents per pack levy like that found in Australia or New Zealand, then Canadian arts and sporting agencies wouldn't be shut out in the financial cold when Bill C-71 comes into full effect and ends tobacco sponsorship in 1999."
To date, public support for GM's actions has been superb. "Our voice-mail is overflowing with calls from supporters - only in a couple of cases have people called to voice opposition to our anti-tobacco campaign," says Monniker. "We have a couple more surprises in store for du Maurier, so the fun's not over yet."
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based bunch of corporate critics who,
along with groups like Toronto's AIM, have helped coordinate
this year's assault on du Maurier Jazz Festivals. Next year,
we won't be as nice.
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For Immediate Release: June 26, 1997
Montreal activists protest that city's premier du Maurier event
Once more, Guerrilla Media's (GM) campaign to smoke-out-the-sponsors took du Maurier by surprise - this time in Montreal. Late last night, the Quebec-based anti-tobacco group the Health Ayatollahs began distribution of 3,000 posters parodying du Maurier's trademark "As Seen By" campaign.
The Health Ayatollahs have joined with Vancouver's GM and Toronto's AIM to send a message to du Maurier that its sponsorship of cultural events is wrong. Montreal, in particular, is an important site for protest because that province's mainstream media and government are mostly hostile towards anti-tobacco efforts. To mock the Quebec elite's opposition, the Montreal anti-tobacco activists have co-opted the name Health Ayatollahs - the very same name that pro-tobacco critics use against their detractors in Quebec.
"With GM's help, the Health Ayatollahs put together a French-language version of one of our posters that satirizes du Maurier - instead of 'Jazz As Seen By,' these posters read 'Profits As Seen By,'" says GM spokesperson Faik Naim. "As well, 5,000 copies of a parody Montreal Jazz Festival brochure will also be distributed to festival-goers in that city. Overall, anti-tobacco activists in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver will distribute nearly 13,000 posters and brochures during the du Maurier-sponsored jazz festivals in those three cities."
In GM's updated French version of their 1995 anti-du Maurier poster "Profits As Seen By," a graveyard of crosses is shown above a "du Murder" logo. Below the chilling picture, numbers document du Maurier's costs to our society:
number
of Canadians killed by du Maurier each year (based on the
brand's market share): 9,400
du
Maurier's profits in 1996: $318 million
annual
costs to Canada's healthcare system from the du Maurier
brand alone: $1 billion
blood
money that the Montreal Jazz Festival takes from du Maurier
each year: $1 million
"Besides killing 45,000 people each year, according to a 1996 Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse study, Canadian taxpayers spend over $9 billion dollars annually on health care, productivity loss and preventative programs because of tobacco-related diseases ," says Naim. "At the same time, companies like Imasco Ltd. - the owner of du Maurier and Players cigarettes - are making a monetary killing with their tobacco holdings. For example, in 1996, Imasco grimly reaped $705 million in profits from its tobacco sales alone."
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based group of cultural critics who
want a mere $10,000 for next year's anti-tobacco campaign.
Anybody with that kind of cash can call our voicemail line
at (604) 877-4621. We guarantee that it will be money well
spent.
l
For Immediate Release: June 27, 1997
Freedom of speech threatened by Montreal jazz Festival organizers
In Montreal yesterday, du Maurier Jazz Festival security and members of the Montreal police surrounded and outnumbered anti-tobacco demonstrators two to one at the opening of that city's annual jazz festival. The protesters, known as the Health Ayatollahs, were handing out a parody of the festival program guide to protest du Maurier's sponsorship of the event.
A dozen members of the Montreal-based Health Ayatollahs were taking part in a three-city protest against tobacco sponsorship of jazz festivals that included Vancouver's Guerrilla Media (GM) and Toronto's AIM. This was the first time Montreal activists took part in the annual anti-tobacco festivities.
"Clearly, the jazz festival organizers in Montreal are running scared," says GM spokesperson Noam de Plöm. "To call in the police and security to prevent protesters from handing out information on public property is a desperate move that backfired. Not only does it violate the protesters constitutional rights, it shows how intolerant du Maurier and its minions are towards groups that criticize their murderous corporation."
As a result of the police presence, print and electronic media on hand quickly jumped on the story. Dailies in Montreal like Le Devoir and The Gazette ran front page pieces on the protest. As well, television and radio stations carried coverage of the protest at the top of their news programs all day yesterday.
"The threats coming from du Maurier over the pamphlet are particularly amusing," says de Plöm, referring to the tobacco giant's legal posturing over the parody brochures and posters that the Health Ayatollahs were handing out. "What is du Maurier going to do? Are they going to say, `No, that's false advertising - du Maurier's brand only kills 9,000 people in Canada each year not 9,400.' Perhaps du Maurier wants to tie up protesters in court by using a SLAPP suit to intimidate and eliminate opposition."
According to Health Ayatollahs spokesperson Jean Némard, the group is very happy with how events are unfolding. "We will return to the festival every afternoon to get out the message that tobacco companies are hijacking cultural and sporting events to push their deadly products on our children. We know du Maurier is afraid of us because we simply speak the truth."
- 666 -
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based group of cultural critics who
routinely knock corporations and governing elites who carry
out their business at society's expense. In the past three
years of protesting at Vancouver's du Maurier-sponsored jazz
festival, our members have never been forced off public
property during actions. Even though we have been asked to
stop protesting on site by city police and Vancouver Jazz
Festival staff have manhandled members of our group, GM
activists have stood their ground and exercised their
democratic rights. Since 1994, we have handed out over
10,000 parody brochures at Vancouver Jazz Festival venues
and distributed over 8,000 posters in the city satirizing du
Maurier's sponsorship of cultural events.
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