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Tamara Moore, manager of media relations at Manhattan-based Altria Corporate Services Inc., a services division of Altria Group, said Camilleri already had addressed the nurses’ concerns in his presentation. “So, the impression might have been that he was not responding to their questions. I think he had felt that he had answered many of the questions,” she said.

According to Moore, “I think our chairman welcomes the comments that he gets from people in attendance who may share a different perspective than his own, but in order for us to align with society’s expectations, basically, we have to hear what those expectations are. The nurses have one perspective on our businesses, while other stakeholders might have another. We certainly welcome their perspective, not just as shareholders but also as stakeholders — people who have a vested interest in our business.”

Moore, who attended the meeting, says she was “glad” to see the nurses there and hear them share their perspectives. “Obviously, as the chairman said and I would say to anybody talking about a loved one that they’ve lost, my first reaction is that, ‘I’m sorry to hear about your loss.’”

The nurses also used the opportunity to garner media attention. They mingled with the press, talking with reporters from Reuters, Dow Jones, and others, and were involved in a press conference with other protesters, including the American Cancer Society and a group of youth.

Shareholder resolutions

In addition to raising awareness for their cause, the nurses tried, as shareholders, to have an effect on health-related shareholder resolutions. One of them had to do with whether to improve warnings for women of childbearing age about the effects of smoking on pregnancy and infants. Another addressed the use of the terms “lights” and “ultra lights,” which are deceptive, according to Malone. “One had to do with filters and the fact that the industry has known for 40 years that fibers from the filters fall out during smoking and get sucked into users’ lungs, where they lodge and cause problems. The change would be to address this in terms of a warning.

“And the fourth [resolution] was whether to use Canadian-style health warnings on packages, here and elsewhere. Canadian health warnings take up about 40% of the cigarette package’s front and back and they have graphics, including pictures of diseased lungs and other things that spell out much more clearly what happens when you use this product.”

Is smoking a choice?

Moore said she doesn’t know if the Nightingales’ goal of an all-out ban on cigarette advertising is a reality. “I know that Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International are both working to market their products in the most responsible way that they can. After the tobacco settlement agreement here in the United States, they’ve gone above and beyond what the marketing restrictions were that were dictated by the settlement,” Moore said.

One example, according to Moore, is that the cigarette maker could advertise on the backs of certain magazines but chooses not to because the ads would be so accessible to children’s eyes. Philip Morris, she said, is the only tobacco company to actively support federal regulation of the tobacco industry.

“We also supply ample information on our website about the very real public health risks associated with smoking,” she said. “Tobacco is a legal product in this country, and we want adults who choose to smoke (and again, the key word is for adults to make the most informed decision).”

Malone, though, questions the industry’s motives.

“The fact is that we know most people take it up as teenagers or very young adults, before they’re really aware of what sort of choice they’re making,” she said. “The industry’s marketing materials consistently portray people as young, healthy, dynamic, and having fun. They don’t portray people sitting hunched on the edge of a bed trying to grab for the slightest bit of breath. Now that’s truth in advertising.”

Using Federal Trade Commission figures, Malone says the five largest tobacco companies spent more than $11.22 billion in 2001, or $1.2 million dollars an hour, 24 hours a day, on the advertising and promotion of cigarettes.

Malone says she would like to have 500 nurses on the next trip to a tobacco industry shareholders meeting.

Looking back, she says the trip was well worth the expense and effort. “I think what we accomplished was we planted the seed for nurses to take on Big Tobacco,” Malone says. “And I think if anyone in this country could make a difference, it would be nurses.”

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