Lorillard Sales Position

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Lorillard Sales Position

This 9-page Lorillard document from 1964 recounts the history of how the company exploited smokers' health fears and mistaken belief in the 1950's that KENT was a "safer cigarette." It was written by Lorillard's vice president of advertising, Manuel Yellen, and sent to the company's Chief Executive Officer. Yellen says,

"As all of us are waare, KENT was marketed as a 'safer' cigarette for the smoker who was concerned about smoking and health...Lorillard exploited this advantage so that within a short period of two years KENT volume great from less than four billion cigarettes to thirty-eight billion annually."

This document was used as a trial exhibit in Florida, Missouri, Minnesota and Texas.

Quotes from the doocument:

As all of us are aware, KENT was marketed as a "safer" cigarette for the smoker who was concerned about smoking and health. In 1956 when an innocent third party (Reader's Digest) created an awareness to the consumer that KENT was the "safest" of all popular filter cigarettes, Lorillard exploited this advantage to that within a short period of two years the KENT volume grew from less than four billion cigarette to thirty-eight billion annually...

Between the years of 1956 and 1960, several competitive brands appeared on the market in an attempt to...erase the KENT "image of safety."...It was the decision of management to immediately fight back...with hard-biting copy in order to retain the "KENT safety image," and protect Lorillard's "bread and butter" brand. I feel we were successful in accomplishing our objective and maintaining the safety image of KENT among consumers sensitive to health...

Document Date: 15 Oct 1964
Length: 9 pages
Bates No. 01124257/4265
URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/xmo99d00