excluded tobacco investments from their investment strategies. (Yach, Brinchmann, Bellet page 2, 4, 5).Other factors that contribute to the inability of regulations to reduce smoking are that there are power imbalances in exchange. This is because, tobacco firms are politically powerful (for example in 2000 the United States tobacco companies were major contributors to the national elections and also there are civil servants that look after industry’s interest against the public interest) and as always the powerful set the agenda and also because cigarette advertisements and advertisements in general, make much of television and radio free and keep costs down. However in recent years, tobacco firm’s interests started taming in the public interest. For example, many cases were brought to both United States and United Kingdom court, based on the idea that tobacco is a ‘drug delivery vehicle’. This is because consumers advocate for their rights to improve their quality of life(for example cigarette advertisements create cultural pollution decreasing the quality of life) and also because laws against smoking are stricter nowadays. As a result, tobacco companies today are more vulnerable than ever, from moral panic, political wrangling and legal battles. Tobacco companies realizing that their behavior and business ethics play an important role to the public which expects from them to be socially responsible, they launch multimillion dollar media campaigns to improve their image. The campaigns include donations to community charities, sponsorship of fine arts events, creation and embellishment of parks and youth smoking prevention campaigns. The concern of tobacco industries, is to demonstrate responsibility to the public that considers their industry as controversial, as Michael Prideaux, Corporate Affairs Director of British American Tobacco said recently. (Yach, Brinchmann, Bellet page 6).To show to the public tha...
