Fags and Fiction

After fairtrade coffee and chocolate, what about cigarettes? The idea may sound preposterous, but hearing the vice president of Philip Morris International claim this week that the tobacco giant is a good corporate citizen, anything is possible.

Asked how a company manufacturing products that kill can ever be responsible, David Davies responded: "The product can't be the determinant of whether your company is socially responsible. It is whether your behaviour is responsible which is key."

In other words, it's about whether Philip Morris uses fewer pesticides to grow its tobacco, ensures no child labour is employed on tobacco farms and does "everything possible" to keep cigarettes away from children that determines its social responsibility credentials, Davies argued.

"It's about how you grow tobacco, sell it and market it," he said.

It is a bizarre notion that anyone would choose to buy a packet of Marlboro cigarettes according to how well the company treats its tobacco farmers, but according to Davies, the customers it has consulted expect the company to take action in a number of areas: the health effects of its products; the development of less dangerous products and preventing youth smoking.

Customers' expectations drive the company's corporate social responsibility agenda, Davies claimed.

"When we respond to our customers concerns it does generate brand loyalty," he said. "They tell us that reducing the risks of the product and stopping kids smoking are key concerns."

So will we be seeing Philip Morris selling fairtrade cigarettes? Well, according to a spokeswoman for the Fair Trade Federation, the idea of fairtrade tobacco has been mooted, so the idea is not as far-fetched as it seems.

"Much of it is grown in the third world so there is an argument for looking at it," she said. "But at the moment the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation, which sets international fairtrade standards and certifies manufacturers, has no plans to include tobacco. It is looking at cotton right now." Davies admitted at the annual conference in London of Business in the Community - a group that includes most of the FTSE-100 companies - that his company's products "cause diseases".

"That's why people have to be informed of the dangers and we have to focus on reducing the net harm of smoking," he said.

Asked if tobacco companies should pay for the cost to the NHS of tobacco-related illness, he said fiscal measures dedicated to treating disease was the best method.

"We are talking to governments about this," he added.

Justifying the case for Philip Morris's existence, Davies argued that with one billion smokers worldwide, cigarettes would still be produced whether or not the company pulled out.

"If I cease to sell cigarettes tomorrow, someone arguably less responsible than I am will be selling them. I'd rather we were doing it than a company that was shipping them in from China and selling them to children."

He claimed the numbers of smokers had not fallen in the UK, but that they were buying lower priced products and illegally smuggled cigarettes.

Davies had three words of advice for other companies in the firing line on corporate social responsibility - ask, listen and learn. Listening to Davies, a former US lawyer, was certainly an eye-opener.