ABSTRACT
Victory is sweet, but is it really? The Philip Morris USA (PM) division of the Altria Group had been bombarded for many years by class action suits alleging that they knew their tobacco-based products were a major contributor to cancer-related illness for their consumers. In November 1998, the industry settled with 46 states for a total of $40 billion. Beginning in 1999, Philip Morris spent about $100 million per year on a TV campaign attempting to mitigate the highly negative publicity.1
