Altria Corporation promotes Domestic Violence lies

[Brent]

In case you want to contact the jerks at Altrea, here's some contact info:

Michael Mudd, Senior Vice President
Tel: 847–646–2868
Address (HQ): Three Lakes Drive, Northfield, IL 60093,USA.

Email: [email protected]   <--- EMAIL THEM!



Edward Stephens (NCFM, Greater NY Chapter Pres.) wrote:

> NYT Mag 7 Dec 2003 Altria, Kraft, Phillip Morris ad on DV
> According to the double page ad on page 3 and 4 ; DV affects 1 in 4
> women and costs business $3billion/yr.

Below is the response from Phil Cook of SAFE:

Mon, 8 Dec 2003 09:36:34 -0800
        From:     "Phil Cook"
        To:       "safe-intl"


December 8, 2003

Dear Editor:

What is the responsible journalistic response when a major advertiser in
your publication makes false claims and libels a group of people? Ignore
it? Or, write a story reporting the facts? This is the choice you currently
face.

The Altria Corporation recently placed a large two-page ad in your
publication making false claims about a significant public policy issue.
Not only were the claims false, but also it is not over-reaching to
state that the claims are libel/slander-intended to defame the
reputation of a group of people merely because they belong to a
particular group.

Imagine if you will, that a major corporation made the claim that
African-Americans, Jews, or gay men, regularly committed an outrageous
amount of crime against another group? Would you suspect racism or
sexism, especially when it can be easily determined that the statements
were not true? Would you suspect an effort behind the statements to denigrate
via 'the big lie' Jews, African-Americans or gays in order to gain
political power and control, funding, and the continuation of other false and
defamatory statements?

The Altria Corporation made three statements of so-called 'fact' in
their advertisement, none of which can be supported by the available
evidence, and one statement that is so obviously false as to be
laughable, were it not so hurtful. We suspect that this corporation has been fed false
information that have chosen to accept as true by other groups they support,
without investigating these groups veracity or intent. These statements
denigrate a particular group-heterosexual men-and hold them up to be
vile and particularly dangerous in an outrageous manner totally out of proportion
to reality.

Despite our letter, (below) the Altria Corporation has chosen not to
respond.

We believe, as responsible journalists, you should not ignore such
statements merely because this corporation is a major advertiser. If you
choose to ignore such statements, then your publication is acting via
your silence to contribute to a deleterious effect on public policy and
debate regarding a significant public policy issue, as well as ultimately
contributing to a great deal of harm and misery.

Please contact us.

Sincerely,

Philip Cook
Program Director
Stop Abuse For Everyone
PO Box 951
Tualatin, OR 97062
Email: [email protected]
//www.safe4all.org

Dear Altria Group and Committee on Public Affairs and Social
Responsibility:

As a responsible corporation you understand that conveying false
information about your products and services would harm your company in
the long run.

It is more difficult to be responsible for false information supplied by
others but promoted by the company.

Nevertheless, corporations who support and publicly promote false
information by anyone, (even when the corporate intent is to be
beneficial to the community) run the risk of harming the company in the
long run.

We are a non-profit human rights organization that is very supportive of
your well publicized and grant supported efforts against domestic
violence.

However, false and misleading statements about domestic violence
which you support through full page advertisements in major
publications, and on your corporate website do you a disservice.  
There are a number that we could point out, but the intent of this
letter is to show you one example, and encourage communication with
us regarding other such statements as well as to assist you in other
related areas.

While it is important to raise public awareness about the extent,
nature, and consequences of domestic violence, it is equally important to be
accurate and responsible and not make unfounded claims merely to
support a worthwhile effort.

In a recent advertisement Altria claimed: "Domestic violence is the
leading cause of injury to women in our country." Any reasonably astute
person without any specialized knowledge of injury rates, or domestic violence
should be able when asked to reflect upon it, to immediately determine
that this is false. How could it be true that more women are injured by
intimate partners than in household accidents, car crashes, or other
more likely
causes?

The truth is quite different than the Altria statement:
The Centers for Disease Control: "National Hospital Ambulatory Medical
Care Survey: 1992 Emergency Department Summary, shows that the leading
cause of injury, to both women and men, is accidental falls, followed by
motor vehicle accidents. According to the CDC, 13.6% of injuries to women
seen in emergency room are from car accidents -- a total of nearly 2
million, or almost 10 times the number of injuries from domestic violence. Twice as
many women visit emergency rooms due to being injured by an animal
(459,000 a year) than by a male partner. In addition, the most recent US
Justice Department Survey of injury related visits to emergency rooms found
that ALL violence is responsible for 3% of such visits and domestic
violence for 1%.

In total this means that domestic violence accounts for fewer than 0.3%
of ER visits.

We look forward to your response to this important concern, and
assisting you with your advertisements and programs related to domestic
violence.

Sincerely,
Philip W. Cook-Program Director
Stop Abuse For Everyone PO Box 951 Tualatin, OR 97062 (503)
407-4674
Email:[email protected]
//www.safe4all.org

Cc;
Jane Evans, CEO Opnix, Inc
2250 W. 14th
Tempe, Arizona
85218

Stephen M. Wolf
RR Donnelley
77 West Wacker Dr.
Chicago, IL
60601-1696

J Dudley Fishburn
Beazley Group
One Aldgate
London
EC3N 1AA

Louis C. Camilleri
CEO Altria Group
120 Park Ave., 25th Fl.
New York, N.Y.
10017

David Tovar
Corporate Communications
Altria Group
120 Park Ave., 25th Fl.
New York, N.Y. 10017

[StPaulieGirl]

I know Kraft and Phillip Morris(I should own stock in their company), but I've never heard of Altria.

[FatherTime]

Altria is the new name for Phillip Morris' parent company.

see:

http://www.phillipmorris.com and notice the name at the bottom of the page.  

Here is Altria's Corporate Social Responsibility page.

http://www.altria.com/media/executive_speech/03_09_02_29_KDaragan11192003.asp

And here is their page on DV

http://www.altria.com/media/03_04_03_Domestic_Violence.asp

__________________________________________________

The disinformation:

"In fact, battering by intimate partners is the leading cause of injury among women ages 15 to 44."

I think they forgot to put in "violence related" cause of injury.  They should correct their error.

__________________________________________________

I think this is where they get their information. However, I wasn't able to find supporting disinformation on their site.

http://www.caepv.org/

__________________________________________________

I don't support domestic violence in any form or fashion...but misinformation is not the way to address the issue.  

[StPaulieGirl]

I think they forgot to put in "violence related" cause of injury. They should correct their error.

[p]Yes they should.

[p]On that other site, I believe that you need to become a member to access the info.

[p]Did you read some of the PC gobbledygook on Altria's site?