Advocacy in Action 447
stakeholders has occurred in other nations, with groups and
individuals refusing to risk being appropriated into the
industry's public relations ambitions. It now looks like that
with vigilance, tobacco control advocates can easily foment
similar distaste in many areas of the business community.
Our actions sought to denormalise the tobacco industry by
disrupting its efforts to take its place alongside other
industries—often with considerable social credit—in the
hope that it might gain by association.
Tobacco industry posturing about its corporate responsi-
bility can never hide the ugly consequences of its ongoing
efforts to "work with all relevant stakeholders for the
preservation of opportunities for informed adults to consume
tobacco products"¹ (translation: "we will build alliances with
others who want to profit from tobacco use, to do all we can
to counteract effective tobacco control"). BAT has 15.4% and
Philip Morris 16.4% of the global cigarette market. With 4.9
million smokers currently dying from tobacco use each year,
and the industry unblinkingly concurring that its products
are addictive, this leaves BAT to argue why it should not
be held to be largely accountable for the annual deaths of
some 754 600 smokers, and Philip Morris some 803 600
smokers.

REFERENCES
1 British American Tobacco. Social Report. http://www.bat.com/204pp.
2 Wroe D. Tobacco ad campaign angers MPs. The Age (Melbourne) 2004; May
17 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/16/
1084646069771.html?oneclick = true.
3 Hirschhorn N. Corporate social responsibility and the tobacco industry: hope
or hype? Tobacco Control 2004;13:447–53.
4 Ethical Corporation Asia 2004. Conference website. http://
www.ethicalcorp.com/asia2004/.
5 Chapman S, Shatenstein S. Extreme corporate makeover: tobacco companies,
corporate responsibility and the corruption of "ethics". Globalink petition.
http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code = extreme.
6 Mackay J, Eriksen M. The tobacco atlas. Geneva: World Health
Organization, 2002.

INDUSTRY WATCH
Corporate social responsibility and the tobacco industry:
hope or hype?
N Hirschhorn

Tobacco Control 2004;13:447-453. doi: 10.1136/tc. 2003.006676
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerged from a
realisation among transnational corporations of the need
to account for and redress their adverse impact on society:
specifically, on human rights, labour practices, and the
environment. Two transnational tobacco companies have
recently adopted CSR: Philip Morris, and British American
Tobacco. This report explains the origins and theory
behind CSR; examines internal company documents from
Philip Morris showing the company's deliberations on the
matter, and the company's perspective on its own
behaviour; and reflects on whether marketing tobacco is
antithetical to social responsibility.

Correspondence to:
Dr Norbert Hirschhorn,
Nastolantie 6, A3 00600
Helsinki, Finland;
bertzpoet@yahoo.com
Received
13 November 2003
Accepted 15 July 2004
Over the past three decades increasing
pressure from non-governmental organi-
sations (NGOs), governments and the
United Nations, has required transnational cor-
porations (TNCs) to examine and redress the
adverse impact their businesses have on society
and the environment. Many have responded by
taking up what is known as "corporate social
responsibility" (CSR); only recently have two
major cigarette companies followed suit: Philip
Morris (PM) and British American Tobacco
(BAT). This report first provides the context
and development of CSR; then, from internal
company documents, examines how PM came to
its own version. This paper examines whether a
tobacco company espousing CSR should be
judged simply as a corporate entity along
standards of business ethics, or as an irretrie-
vably negative force in the realm of public health,
thereby rendering CSR an oxymoron.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
THE CONTEXT
The term "corporate social responsibility" is in
vogue at the moment but as a concept it is vague
and means different things to different people.¹
Some writers on CSR trace its American roots
to the 19th century when large industries
engaged in philanthropy and established great
public institutions, a form of "noblesse oblige".
But the notion that corporations should be
required to return more to society because of
their impact on society was driven by pressures
from the civil rights, peace, and environmental
movements of the last half century.23 The
unprecedented expansion of power and influ-
ence of TNCs over the past three decades has
accelerated global trade and development, but
also environmental damage and abuses of

Abbreviations: ASH, Action on Smoking and Health;
BAT, British American Tobacco; CERES, Coalition for
Environmentally Responsible Economies; CSR, corporate
social responsibility; DJSI, Dow Jones Sustainability Index;
GCAC, Global Corporate Affairs Council; GRI, Global
Reporting Initiative; MSA, Master Settlement Agreement;
NGOs, non-governmental organisations; PM, Philip
Morris; TNCs, transnational corporations; UNEP, United
Nations Environment Program

www.tobaccocontrol.com
