OCTOBER 1996 · VOLUME 17 · NUMBER 10
N A M E S I N T H E N E W S
OCTOBER 1996 · VOLUME 17 · NUMBER 10
N A M E S I N T H E N E W S
R.J. REYNOLDS, an 80-year old Spokane, Washington grandfather who kicked the smoking habit in the 1950s, wants the public to understand a simple message -- "Smoking Kills. Don't Buy Cigarettes."
Reynolds, a retired attorney who was a prosecutor during the Nuremberg trials, hooked up with anti-smoking groups in the state of Washington to put his face and anti-tobacco message on billboards around the state.
But in September, one major billboard company in Tacoma balked. According to the Tobacco Free Washington Coalition, this is what happened:
The coalition started a "Same Names" ad campaign -- a media parody project featuring real people who share infamous tobacco names but who believe "smoking kills."
The coalition expressed interest in an Ackerly Communications, Inc. billboard at Center and Union Streets in Tacoma, where a Marlboro ad had just been taken down.
But an Ackerly representative told the coalition that the company would not run the "Same Names" ad because the ad campaign represented a conflict of interest with Ackerly's existing tobacco clients and bashed a "legitimate" corporation.
The coalition reports that Ackerly controls the majority of prime billboard space in Tacoma and Seattle. Other billboard companies in the state have run the "Same Names" campaign ads.
"If kids were exposed to as many messages from grandfathers as they are from Joe Camel, perhaps they would not start smoking, and not be inclined to purchase cigarettes," says Kirstin Tutt of the coalition. "This certainly could be uncomfortable for the tobacco industry."
Tutt says the coalition is planning billboards featuring a retiree in Arizona -- Philip Morris -- and a Marlboro man from Marlboro, Vermont. "We looked for a Joe Camel, found one in Texas, but he wouldn't return our calls," Tutt says.
Unbalanced Claims
NEW BALANCE ATHLETIC SHOES, INC. and Hyde Athletic Industries, Inc. agreed in September to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they misrepresented that all of their athletic footwear is made in the United States when a substantial amount is made wholly abroad.
In addition, New Balance has agreed to settle charges that it falsely represented that it annually exports to Japan hundreds of thousands of pairs of athletic shoes that are U.S. made.
The proposed settlements do not address "Made in USA" claims for shoes made partially from domestic parts and labor and partially from foreign parts and labor.
The proposed consent agreements settling the charges against New Balance and Hyde would prohibit the companies from misrepresenting that footwear made wholly abroad is made in the United States.
Burma Sues Unocal
THE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED government-in-exile of Burma filed a lawsuit in September against Unocal, charging the multinational oil company with wide-scale human rights violations in connection with the construction of a natural gas pipeline in Burma.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, calls for an injunction against the company.
The lawsuit alleges that Unocal's joint venture with the Burmese military regime and with Total, a French oil company, has caused the forced labor of tens of thousands of villagers, the systematic destruction of villages in the pipeline region and other human rights violations.
Burma's military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), has been widely condemned by human rights groups as one of the most brutal regimes in the world.
The lawsuit claims that, as part of the joint venture agreement, Unocal relied on SLORC to provide and maintain all military operations in the pipeline region, thereby resulting in severe repression of citizens of Burma.
In a statement, Unocal called the allegations "false, irresponsible and frivolous."
"We believe this lawsuit is motivated solely by political considerations," Unocal said.
Unocal said that the natural gas project "has caused none of the false and outrageous allegations" made in the lawsuit.
"All people who work on the pipeline project are paid a better-than-average wage, people have been more-than-fairly compensated for any land use, and villages are in the same place they always have been," Unocal said.
But John Bonifaz, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said that while no forced labor is being used to build the pipeline itself, forced labor is being used to clear the area for the pipeline and to build a railroad line that will carry soldiers and equipment necessary to build the pipeline.
"All the other forced labor activity ... makes Unocal liable," Bonifaz said. "Unocal says that they will pay their workers to build the pipeline. But that does not absolve them, whatsoever, for the liability they must face for the enormous human rights atrocities that are occurring in connection with this project. Our position is that when a company goes abroad and joins up with the SLORC military to engage in forced labor situations and other serious human rights abuses, all the co-venturers are liable for those actions. They cannot separate out what the SLORC military is doing from what Unocal is doing."
-- Russell Mokhiber