Priority Populations

Background

Corporate sponsorship of events and organizations is a commonly used marketing tool by tobacco companies. Of particular concern is tobacco companies' long history of providing funding to support organizations that work with specific populations, including organizations that work in African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) communities. Several studies that reviewed internal tobacco industry documents found that the tobacco industry has aggressively targeted several groups among communities of color (3, 9, 13, 16). In 2001, Philip Morris spent $64 million advertising specifically to the Hispanic community (8).
 
Between 1995 and 1999, organizations that provide services for specific ethnic and racial populations were the second most likely category of organizations to receive sponsorship and corporate donations from the tobacco industry, with 41 different organizations or events supported. (12). Sponsorship allows a company to advertise aggressively at events, and to reach specific target audiences that may be hard to reach through traditional marketing events. By supporting events, the companies may engender brand loyalty and familiarity, which can encourage continued brand use among targeted communities (12).
 
Smoking rates are often higher among communities of color and the LGBT population. In 2002, the national smoking rate was approximately 22.5%. Smoking rates were higher than average among:
 
 

• Black men, 27.1%;
   
• Hispanic men, 22.7%;
   
• Native American men, 40.5%;
   
• Native American women, 40.9% (5).
  

 
Though there are no national data on smoking rates in the LGBT population, the California Health Interview Survey found that, in 2001, the smoking rate among gays and lesbians was nearly 31% (15). Finally, though the smoking rate in the AAPI community is low, at around 13% nationally in 2002, studies have shown an inverse association between cigarette smoking and acculturation among adults from Southeast Asia (14).
 
Many racial/ethnic and LGBT community-based organizations may find it difficult to fund cultural celebrations and events.  The tobacco industry is interested in promoting its corporate image among these populations, and provides incentives that make it difficult for boards of directors to refuse their funding. However, by seeking support from sources other than tobacco companies, organizations can avoid relationships with an industry that produces a dangerous product, and reaffirm organizations' commitments to the health of the communities they serve.

Policies

 
Community-based, non-profit organizations and local governments pledge not to accept sponsorship from tobacco companies for specific events, such as community fairs.
 
Organizations can refuse to accept sponsorship for any events that the organization hosts or with which an organization is affiliated. According to the Tobacco Industry Monitoring Evaluation (TIME) Project of the University of Southern California, as of August 2004, there were more than 500 events and organizations in California that adopted formal policies that included one or more of the following components: the provision of smoke-free areas at events, refusal of sponsorship, and/or a refusal of corporate donations (7).
 

• In 1991, in Monterey, several tobacco coalition members protested the R.J. Reynolds booth at the El Grito Festival in Salinas. Coalition staff then invited members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a main organizing partner of the El Grito Festival, to attend alternative sponsorship trainings. The following year, no tobacco sponsorships were accepted, and in 1998, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, by then the main El Grito Festival organizers, adopted a formal policy refusing tobacco sponsorship (10).
   
• The Asian and Pacific Islander Tobacco Education Partnership worked with the organizers of the Hmong New Year Celebration in Fresno, CA, to make the event tobacco-free. This New Year Celebration attracts more than 100,000 attendees annually. In 1998, the organizers agreed to adopt a policy to refuse tobacco sponsorship and corporate donations for the event, and to make the entire event smoke-free (2).
  

 
 
Local jurisdictions such as county government and city government agencies can refuse to allow events on government property if they receive tobacco sponsorship.
 
When local jurisdictions do not allow tobacco-sponsored events to take place at public venues, community-based organizations and ethnic business associations will be more likely to refuse tobacco funding.
 

• The City of Berkeley, CA passed a resolution that states that the City, "shall not sponsor or co-sponsor any event that accepts as primary or secondary sponsors manufacturers, distributors, or retailers whose principal business is tobacco products. There shall be no distributing or displaying of fliers, posters, signs, banners, dispensers, programs, activities, or apparel bearing logos or brand names of an alcohol or tobacco product manufacturer."

 

• The County of Riverside, CA has a policy stating that, "no sponsorship of any county event will be accepted from a tobacco company, nor shall any County event allow any advertising, the sale or give-away of items identified with a tobacco brand, and/or samples of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco." (6)

 
 
Community-based organizations may adopt policies prohibiting tobacco company funding for organizational support.
 
An organization that is considering adopting a policy to refuse tobacco sponsorship can use one of many model guidelines that have been developed for this purpose. (Please see the resources section below for more information on guidelines and policies).
 
 

• In 2004, a coalition of African American organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, including 100 Black Men, the Bay Area Black Nurses, the San Francisco Black Firefighters, and the San Francisco African American Tobacco Free Project, adopted a resolution to refuse tobacco advertising and/or funding of any kind, and encouraged their national affiliate organizations to do the same (4).
   
   
• Between 1998 and 2001, Dinero Sabio, a project of the California Hispanic/Latino Tobacco Education Partnership (formerly Network) worked with local California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce to assist them in developing written policies to refuse tobacco industry sponsorship. Through this project, six chambers developed such policies; three were enacted into perpetuity, and three were written to be reevaluated annually by the Chamber commissions (11). In addition, the program was able to provide mini-grants to several of the Hispanic Chambers of Commerce to fund events that would normally have been funded by other sources, such as tobacco industry sponsorship (11). 
   
   
• The Asian Pacific Islander Tobacco Education Partnership worked with the Head Abbot at Wat Thai, a Thai Buddhist temple in Los Angeles, CA, to adopt a smoke-free policy for their 2002 Thai New Year Festival. The temple often holds community events, and the Partnership wanted to ensure that event attendees would be protected from secondhand smoke. As a result of this campaign, the temple developed a formal policy to make the grounds smoke-free at all times, not only during community events. The policy also included a provision on refusing tobacco funding, thereby strengthening the policy (1).
   
  

Effectiveness Data

Tobacco companies sponsor or provide corporate donations to organizations to advertise and increase visibility of the product. Although there is little research that has studied the link between tobacco sponsorship and tobacco use rates, there are data that support a link between advertising levels and tobacco use rates. If an organization working within communities of color refuses to accept donations or event sponsorship, it sends a normative message to the community in which it works that tobacco is not simply another consumer item but is a leading contributor of premature death and disease in the United States, and should not be supported or given legitimacy through association. By changing a community norm that normalizes the use of tobacco products, youth may be less likely to start using tobacco products, and those who smoke may be more likely to quit.

Resources

Model Guidelines
 

1. Asian and Pacific Islander Tobacco Education Network. (n.d.) Tobacco-Free Sponsorship Policy Adoption Kit. Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum: San Francisco, CA.

 

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2004, May) Accepting Funds from the Tobacco Industry: Guidance for Collaboration with the Private Sector. Accessed online August 17, 2004 at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/legal_policy/accepting_fund.htm.

 

3. Coalition of Lavender Americans on Smoking and Health and the California Lavender Smokefree Project. (1998) Ethical Funding for LGBT & HIV/AIDS Community-Based Organizations: Practical Considerations when Considering Tobacco, Alcohol and Pharmaceutical Funding. Accessed online August 12, 2004 at: http://www.gaysmokeout.net/docs/EthicalFundingForLGBTOrganizations.pdf

 

4. Flynn, P. with contributions by Jensen, P., Tencati, E., Baezconde-Garbanati, L. (2000, April) A "Tool Kit" for Corporate Donations: Helping Local Groups Say No to Tobacco Money. Scotts Valley, CA: Tobacco Education Clearinghouse of California.

To obtain a copy, contact the Tobacco Education Clearinghouse of California at 800-258-9090.

5. National Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (2000, March) Model Guidelines for Nonprofits Evaluating Proposed Relationships with Other Organizations.Accessed online August, 12, 2004 at http://tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0151.pdf
   

 
Organizations
 
Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum
450 Sutter Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: 415-954-9988
FAX: 415-954-9999
http://www.apiahf.org
 
National African American Tobacco Prevention Network
4044 W. Lake Mary Blvd, Suite 104, PMB 316
Lake Mary, FL 32746
Ph: 888-4NAATPN 
Email: thenetwork@naatpn.org
http://www.naatpn.org/home/index.html
 
National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention
1616 P Street NW
Suite 430
Washington, DC 20036
202-265-8054 VOICE
202-265-8056 FAX
email: lcat@nlcatp.org
http://www.nlcatp.org/
 
National Tribal Tobacco Prevention Network
527 SW Hall St., Ste. 300
Portland, Oregon 97201
Phone: 503/228-4185
Fax: 503/228-8182
 
TALC (Technical Assistance Legal Center)
Public Health Institute
505 14th Street, Suite 810
Oakland, CA 94612
http://talc.phi.org
510-444-8252
 
The Praxis Project
1750 Columbia Road, NW
Second Floor
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 234-5921
Fax: (202) 234-2689
Email: info@thepraxisproject.org
http://www.thepraxisproject.org
 

References

 
 

1. Asian and Pacific Islander Tobacco Education Network. (2004) Case Study: APITEN Advocacy Campaigns in Four Regions of California. Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum: San Francisco, CA.

 

2. Asian and Pacific Islander Tobacco Education Network. (n.d.) Tobacco-Free Sponsorship Policy Adoption Kit. Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum: San Francisco, CA.

 

3. Balbach, E., Gasior, R., Barbeau, E. (2003) R.J. Reynolds' targeting of African Americans: 1988-2000. American Journal of Public Health. 93(5):822-7.

 

4. Bay Area African American Chapters. (2004, May 7) Resolution Against Tobacco Industry Sponsorship and Advertising. Accessible online at: http://www.ingcat.org/PDFs/Final%20Bay%20Area%20Resolution.doc

 

5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2004, May 28) Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2002. MMWR, 53(20); 437-431. Accessible online at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5320a2.htm

 

6. Coalition of Lavender Americans on Smoking and Health and the California Lavender Smokefree Project. (1998) Ethical Funding for LGBT & HIV/AIDS Community-Based Organizations: Practical Considerations when Considering Tobacco, Alcohol and Pharmaceutical Funding. Accessed online August 12, 2004 at: http://www.gaysmokeout.net/docs/EthicalFundingForLGBTOrganizations.pdf

 

7. Cruz, TB. (2004, August) Project SMART Money Local Policy Listings.  Not yet published as of September 2, 2004.

 

8. Gaffney, J. (2003, July 8) Report Shows Climbing Hispanic Spending. Hispanic Business. Accessible online at: http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbvid.asp?id=11475

 

9. Muggli, M., Pollay, R., Lew, R., Joseph, A. (2002) Targeting of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders by the tobacco industry: results from the Minnesota Tobacco Document Depository. Tobacco Control, 11:201-209.

 

10. Nunez Robinette, J. (2003, May) Multiple Approaches to Countering Tobacco Industry Sponsorship in Monterey County. Presentation conducted at Smoking Out the Snake: Exposing and Countering Sponsorship by the Tobacco Industry, Universal City, CA.

 

11. Portugal, C., Cruz, T.B., Espinoza, L., Romero, M., Baezconde-Garbanati, L. (2004) Countering Tobacco Industry Sponsorship of Hispanic/Latino Organizations through Policy Adoption: A Case Study. Health Promotion Practice. 5(3):143S-156S

 

12. Rosenberg, J. & Siegel, M. (n.d.) The Use of Corporate Sponsorship as a Tobacco Marketing Tool: A Review of Tobacco Industry Sponsorship in the United States, 1995-1999.  Available online at: tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/10/3/239.pdf

 

13. Smith, E. & Malone, R. (2003) The outing of Philip Morris: advertising tobacco to gay men. American Journal of Public Health. 93(6): 988-93.

 

14. The Praxis Project. (2003, August) The Changing Face of Tobacco Control. Accessible online at http://www.thepraxisproject.org/tools.htm

 

15. U.S. Newswire. (2003) New Data Shows Smoking Rates Above State Average Among California's Ethnic and Gay and Lesbian Communities. Accessible online at: http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/archives/K/3/pub3380.html

 

16. Yerger, V. & Malone, R. (2002) African American leadership groups: smoking with the enemy. Tobacco Control, 11:336-345.

Acknowledgements

Cecilia Portugal, MPH, Assistant Director, USC/Keck School of Medicine, Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research and the Hispanic/Latino Tobacco Education Partnership, Alhambra, CA
 
Juan Carlos Vega, MLS, Information Specialist, The Praxis Project, Washington, D.C.
 
Jeanette Noltenius, PhD, Vice President, Swartz and Associates, Washington, D.C.
 
Primary Author:
 
Karen Bartley, Research Analyst, Center for Health Improvement, Sacramento, CA