Altria Continues to Fund Ineffective Prevention Programs for Children

Yet denounced as a form of conflict of interest, prevention programs funded by the tobacco industry have never stopped, reveals an article in Time magazine.[1].

The LifeSkills Training (LST) program, set up by behaviorist Gilbert Botvin, is a school-based prevention program designed to steer children away from smoking, but also from illicit drug use, violence, and other risky behaviors. One of the problems with this program is that it is partly funded by the Altria group, owner of, among others, Philip Morris USA (Marlboro) and US Smokeless Tobacco Co., and shareholder of Juul. This conflict of interest is already old, but it has persisted for 23 years despite the denunciations it has already been the subject of.

The Alibi of Child Protection

It was in the late 1990s that tobacco companies began funding prevention programs aimed at young people and adolescents. In 1998, the consulting firm Mongoven, Biscoe and Duchin (MBD) first invited Philip Morris, then British American Tobacco (BAT), to invest in the theme of child protection in order to legitimize their interventions in the field of human rights.[2]This tactic aimed to integrate the partners of the United Nations (UN), in order to counter the preparation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The strategy in question resulted in Philip Morris funding the LifeSkills Training program in 1999, and in 2000 the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing (ECLT) foundation, which brought together BAT, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco International, and was supposedly intended to combat child labor on tobacco plantations. Beyond restoring the image of cigarette companies through corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions, these projects had the common characteristic of being ineffective, and even deliberately counterproductive.

Prevention methods are not very effective

These practices were denounced in the early 2000s by public health actors as clear conflicts of interest. Cheryl Healton, who was director of the Legacy Foundation and initiator of the "truth" awareness campaign, was able to compare it with the "Think. Don't smoke." campaign, launched during the same period by Philip Morris. She found that the memorization of prevention messages issued by the tobacco industry was significantly lower than that of a prevention campaign designed by public health actors. This even resulted in a rather positive image of the tobacco industry.[3]. The industry "positions itself as part of the solution", Cheryl Healton summarized in Time magazine, "The message they're sending is, 'The tobacco industry really cares about me.'".

Another study, dating from 2006 and focusing more specifically on the LifeSkills Training program, led to the same conclusions.[4] : its low effectiveness in reducing smoking, however, did not prevent the renewal, with full knowledge of the facts, of the financing of this program by Philip Morris and its colleague Brown & Williamson (B&W). The separation, in 2007, of Philip Morris Companies between Altria and Philip Morris International (PMI) did not change this situation.[5].

Hidden financing practices that continue

Despite these warnings, the LifeSkills Training program has continued to be disseminated ever since. The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) at the University of Colorado, for example, adopted it in 2009 and its director was surprised to learn in recent days the sources of its funding. However, this is a proven practice, with tobacco companies preferring not to appear as financial supporters of these programs, for fear of discrediting them. "We know that our direct involvement in implementing these programs is not the right approach, which is why we invest in effective and validated programs like the LikeSkills Training program.", concedes a spokesman for cigarette maker Altria. The validation of LifeSkills Training in 1999 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is no longer relevant, however; "Since that time, the tobacco product landscape has changed considerably" a CDC representative said, indicating that he could not confirm the effectiveness of LifeSkills Training.

Altria's extensive funding of LifeSkills Training nevertheless allows it to offer free interventions, tools and teacher training to schools and universities, a practice particularly appreciated when the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced budgets allocated to tobacco and addiction prevention. In parallel, Altria also funds youth organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs, 4h and Big Brothers, Big Sisters. In 2020, Altria will have invested a total of US$25 million in initiatives aimed at young people in the country. This is further confirmation that the youth segment appears to be one of the most valuable in the eyes of this company, not only to improve its image, but above all to perpetually renew its clientele.[6].

Keywords: Altria, LikeSkills Training, Gilbert Botvin, prevention, CSR

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[1] Ducharme J, The tobacco giant that won't stop funding anti-smoking programs for kids, Time. Published February 14, 2020, accessed February 15, 2022.

[2] Carter S, Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin: destroying tobacco control activism from the inside, Tobacco Control, 2002;11:112–118.

[3] Farrelly M, Healton C, Davis K, Messeri P, Hersey J, Haviland L, Getting to the Truth: Evaluating National Tobacco Countermarketing Campaigns, Am J Public Health. 2002 June; 92(6): 901–907.

[4] Mandel L, Bialous S, Glantz S, Avoiding “Truth”: Tobacco Industry Promotion of Life Skills Training, Journal of Adolescent Health, volume 39, issue 6, December 01, 2006, p868-879.

[5] Altria, Tobacco Tactics, modified December 9, 2021, accessed February 15, 2022.

[6] Toebes B, Gispen ME, Been JV, Sheikh A. A missing voice: the human rights of children to a tobacco-free environment, Tobacco Control, 2018 Jan;27(1):3-5.