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BAT’s Blackberry-picking endorsement

¹ London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK; kelley.lee@lshtm.ac.uk
² University of Sydney, Australia

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Selected customers of Blackberry mobile communications devices have recently been sent an email lauding the reliability of the "Neverfail" operating system which ensures "high availability and disaster recovery" in the case of mobile network failure. On the surface, the message is about Neverfail and Blackberry. However, at the centre of this direct marketing message is a ringing endorsement by British American Tobacco (BAT). Faced with growing regulation of its business, BAT’s apparent use of electronic co-branding is an example of how the tobacco industry is seeking innovative ways to counter growing marginalisation by public health advocates.

The endorsement boosts BAT’s image within the business community as reliable, forward thinking and dynamic, by associating itself with cutting edge global information technology and successful companies in that sector. While the message is not overtly concerned with selling tobacco products, the prominence given to BAT in the message and website (http://www.neverfailgroup.com/bat.aspx) allows it . . . [Full text of this article]

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