Send letter to journal:
Re: Virginia Slims "find your voice" ad

Readers may be interested to know that the Virginia Slims ad shown in this article was changed after the head of Philip Morris was asked pointed questions about it in a recent deposition. The deposition was taken as part of the "Engle" class action lawsuit in Florida, which is heading towards a large punitive damages award (the jury has already handed out two positive verdicts for the plaintiffs).

Here is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal, which provides some details.

---------------------------

Wall Steet Journal June 13, 2000

Philip Morris Removes Slogan From Ads In Second Attempt Responding to Critics

By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH

Michael E. Szymanczyk, head of Philip Morris Cos.' U.S. tobacco operations, said he ordered changes last month to an advertising campaign for Virginia Slims cigarettes after a lawyer suing the cigarette maker asked him pointed questions in a deposition.

Mr. Szymanczyk, testifying in the trial of a class-action suit filed by Florida residents with smoking-related illnesses, said he removed the slogan "Find your voice" from the ads after being deposed by plaintiffs' attorney Stanley M. Rosenblatt, who had suggested it might be offensive to smokers with throat cancer. ...

Mr. Szymanczyk testified that during a deposition in May, Mr. Rosenblatt asked him if he thought the Virginia Slims ad slogan "Find your voice" would be offensive to people who had developed throat cancer from smoking and lost their ability to talk. The next day, Mr. Szymanczyk testified, he ordered the slogan removed from the ads. "He made a good point," Mr. Szymanczyk said, adding that using the slogan in the first place "was my mistake."

During the deposition, Mr. Rosenblatt also questioned Mr. Szymanczyk about the use of the line "Don't let the goody-two-shoes get you down" in some Virginia Slims ads. Mr. Rosenblatt suggested it encouraged people to disregard health warnings about cigarettes.

In his testimony Monday, Mr. Szymanczyk said that slogan was set to "expire anyway" and be discontinued at the end of June. If it had been scheduled to continue, however, Mr. Szymanczyk said he would have ordered it pulled, too. He said he has told managers in charge of the Virginia Slims brand to make sure "there isn't any hint of rebelliousness" in future advertising. "We don't want controversial advertising," he said. "I don't want people to look at our advertising and say that we're trying to do something wrong."

A Philip Morris spokesman said that the Virginia Slims ad campaign, which also has been criticized by antismoking activists for targeting minority women, would continue to run, but with the changes ordered by Mr. Szymanczyk. ...