What it has done, however, is to turn anti-smoking crusaders into - god
forbid - creatives as they take on Philip Morris, now sporting the new
name, possibly to distance its other wholesome products - Kraft and Oreo
- from cigarettes.
That the new name Altria sounds remarkably close to altruistic is of course no laughing matter for the weed busters. They've created a web film, dubbing it as the movie Philip Morris doesn't want shown.Let's just say subtlety isn't one of the strong points of this site - www.philipmorriscanthide.org - to drum up support against Philip Morris' drive to clean up its image by taking on a new name. The movie opens on a bleak, rainy city scene, Pusher Street, where Marlboro Man, accused of causing millions of deaths, is running from the law. He chances upon a plastic surgeon Dr P R Whitewash who turns Marlboro Man into the scarred but innocent-looking Altria.
She then proceeds to hawk the company's more wholesome products. But the
basket also contains its different cigarette brands. Can we expect that
as Big Tobacco goes dark with its advertising in September, we'll still
be getting cigarette ads - only from the anti-smoking crusaders?
