Structure of the Tobacco Industry

Since the Supreme Court broke up the American Tobacco trust in 1912, the American tobacco industry "remained under the control of the giants," a small number of large corporations with oligopoly market power (Sobel, 1978, p. 125). The first manufactured, mass-marketed cigarettes, Camels, were introduced in 1913 by R.J. Reynolds. The giants have competed primarily through advertising whereby they differentiate their brands and, to a lesser extent, by introducing new brands.

In 1993, the largest companies and their share of the American domestic market for cigarettes were as follows: Philip Morris, 42.2 percent, RJR Nabisco, 30.6 percent, Brown & Williamson (owned by a British company, B.A.T.), 11 percent, Lorillard 7.1 percent, American Tobacco 6.7 percent and the Liggett Group 2.4 percent (Hilts, 1994, June 18, p. A1). The most dominant firm in the industry is Philip Morris, a diversified conglom

. . .
to advertise filter cigarettes for their implicit safety even as it raised toxic yields to compensate for the filters" (Frazer, 1996, p. 44). In 1957, Representative John Blatnick of Minnesota mounted an effort in the House Subcommittee on Government Operations to limit the tar and nicotine contents of cigarettes and to grant FTC the power to enjoin deceptive tobacco advertising. Effective tobacco lobbying defeated the bill and caused Blatnick to lose his chairmanship of the subcommittee (Kaplan, 1996, p. 38). A 1965 law, the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, which required labeling of health hazards on cigarette packages, had the result of "effectively barring litigation against the industry on traditional grounds of negligence" and preempted potentially more stringent state and local laws (Arno, 1996, p. 1260; Frazer, 1996, p. 44). A 1971 federal ban on smoking advertising in television and radio saved the industry millions, froze out competitors and put an end to anti-smoking ads then being broadcast under the fairness doctrine. A 1982 increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes was used as a screen by the industry to impose price increases. Lobbying efforts succeeded in exempting tobacco from the c
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Burroughs Helyar, Philip Morris, Disease Control, Advertising Act, RJR Nabisco, Joe Camel, Mother Jones, TOBACCO INDUSTRY, According Frazer, American Tobacco, tobacco industry, philip morris, frazer 1996, hilts 1994 june, 1996 43, york times, 1994 june, hilts 1994, american tobacco, cigarette smoking, rjr nabisco, burroughs helyar 1990, american medical association, los angeles times, 1996 may/june tobacco,
Approximate Word count = 2638
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Structure of the Tobacco Industry