‘Environmentally friendly’ brand promotion activities: cigarette butt clean-up campaigns
- 1Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Greece
- 2Smoking and Lung Cancer Research Center, Hellenic Cancer Society, Greece
- 3Italian Cancer League, Italy
- 4Laboratory of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Athens, Greece
- Correspondence to Dr Constantine I Vardavas, Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, PO Box 2208, Heraklion 71003, Crete, Greece; vardavas{at}edu.med.uoc.gr
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Contributors Equal contribution.
- Received 8 October 2009
- Accepted 24 February 2010
Corporate social responsibility efforts are an invaluable public relations tool commonly applied by the tobacco industry to maintain credibility, public favour and to help sustain their ability to sell lethal products.1 Major tobacco companies have extensively used such programmes in the past, not only to thwart tobacco control efforts but also to indirectly promote their brand names in different parts of the globe.2 Such corporate social responsibility efforts often include cigarette butt clean-up campaigns, an environmental issue close to both the public and the politicians.
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