Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) is a public relations (PR) company that was established in 2018 by a merger between two PR agencies owned by WPP; Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe. This merger reportedly made BCW one of the largest global communications agencies in the world.¹

WPP is a PR and advertising conglomerate, and the parent company of several companies that have longstanding links to the tobacco industry.

In 2024, WPP announced a merger between BCW and another of its communication company’s, Hill & Knowlton, to form ‘Burson’.² According to the statement, Burson was due to be operational from July 2024, and would have more than 6,000 employees worldwide. It also stated that Hill & Knowlton would still “operate within Burson serving a select group of clients globally through strategic communications, advisory and public affairs services”.²

Relationship with the tobacco industry

Providing services to Imperial Brands

A transparency register published by the Public Affairs Board of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), a British PR association, shows that BCW started working for Imperial Brands between December 2019 and February 2020.³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸

Channelled loan from PMI to Australian organisation to lobby for vaping deregulation

BCW worked with the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) between August 2019 and July 2020 to support ARAs newly established lobby group, the Australian Retail Vaping Industry Association (ARVIA).⁹

The Australian Financial Review reported that, in February 2020, BCW contracted ARA to lobby for the deregulation of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs) in Australia. It was reported that the funds for the contract had been channelled from Philip Morris International (PMI).⁹

There was an option for ARA to renew the contract 6 months later, however when ARA appointed a new CEO in August 2020, ARA cancelled the renewal and shut down ARVIA.⁹¹⁰

In February 2021, BCW stated that it worked with PMI from August 2019 until July 2020, but that “PMI is no longer our client and we ended our work with them last year”.⁹

Tobacco Tactics Resources

• WPP
• Lobby Groups
• Philip Morris International
• Imperial Brands

References

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Kekst CNC is a global public relations firm which has long worked with tobacco companies, in particular Philip Morris and Philip Morris International (PMI), advising them on corporate takeovers and regulatory battles.

Organisation

The company was founded in 1971 by Gershon Kekst who had previously been with Ruder Finn – another company with long tobacco links.¹¹

Kekst built up the firm and ran it until 2010. Two years later it became part of part of the French Publicis Groupe. In 2018 Kekst merged with CNC – also part of Publicis Groupe. It gave them a staff of 250, a dozen offices around the world and a client list of more than 600.¹²

It describes itself as a global strategic communications firm:

“As trusted advisors, the firm brings expertise on such high stakes matters as: M&A, shareholder activism and governance, crisis communications, restructurings, regulatory investigations/resolutions, litigation support, investor relations, IPO communications, issues and reputation management, change management and employee engagement, as well as digital and social communications.”¹³

Tobacco clients

After establishing his company Gershon Kekst quickly acquired tobacco clients.

Lorillard

Truth Tobacco Industry Documents show that from at least 1975 the firm was employed by Lorillard, with Gershon Kekst personally involved in the account. It acted for the tobacco company in a lawsuit it launched against the Federal Trade Commission.¹⁴ That personal relationship continued for several years.¹⁵ Lorillard was eventually bought by Reynolds American, owned in turn by British American Tobacco (BAT).

British American Tobacco

Kekst also advised British American Tobacco. A letter from Michael Prideaux, BAT’s Director of Group Public Affairs, in December 1993 praises the work of Kekst that year, and in particular “the extra intelligence provided” in a pricing battle. He agreed to retrain the firm’s services for another year.¹⁶. Kekst was a key advisor in BAT’s $1bn acquisition of the American Tobacco Company in 1994.¹⁷

Philip Morris and Phillip Morris International

Philip Morris is long-standing client, with Kekst advising it on its US$13bn corporate takeover of food giant Kraft in 1988.¹⁸¹⁹ Mergers and acquisitions were an early specialism of the firm which advised on attack or defence in such battles. It remains a key service.²⁰

Gershon Kekst continued to be a trusted personal advisor to Philip Morris.²¹

According to the EU Transparency register, Kekst was paid by Philip Morris International between 200,000 and 299,999 euros in 2019 to act as a lobbyist. That dropped to between 100,000 and 199,999 for 2020. But it still made PMI one of the two single highest paying clients for Kekst.²²

Personnel

Bernhard Meising is joint Chief Executive Officer of Kekst CNC. He worked in corporate audit for Philip  Morris before going on to work for Citigate Dewe Rogerson and then Kekst.²³

Olivier Hinnekens is registered lobbyist with the EU and his Kekst company profile says he has worked on the PMI account as well as the Coalition Against Illicit Trade (CAIT). He was previously a policy advisor to the Flemish Christian Democrats. ²⁴. CAIT was formed in 2015 and is a group of mostly business organisations, some with tobacco links, addressing illicit trade in several sectors, including tobacco.

Gunther Oettinger is a former German member of the European Commission who started working for Kekst CNC in November 2020. In February 2021 the European Ombudsman opened a case regarding Oettinger’s new role, calling for the Commission to review its commitment to FCTC guidelines on tobacco industry interference in light of the upcoming Tobacco Products Directive Revision.²⁵

Kekst makes good use of the revolving door between corporates and governments. Sir Robbie Gibb, previously Director of Communications at No 10 Downing Street, joined Kekst CNC in 2019 as a senior advisor.²⁶ Before joining the government, Gibb worked for 25 years at the BBC on various political programmes. In May 2021 he will re-join the BBC as a board member for England. Gibb is also a director of The Jewish Chronicle.²⁷ He will retain his Kekst role while on the BBC board.

Tobacco Tactics Resources

Revolving Door

PR Companies

Lobbyists and PR People

References

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Founded in 1961, the PR firm Frost and Sullivan describe themselves as a “Global Growth Partnership Company” and a “leader in the information and growth consulting industry”.²⁸

Relationship with the Tobacco Industry

Frost and Sullivan has links to the tobacco industry. The Asia-Pacific arm of Frost and Sullivan was co-founded by Rhenu Bhuller, who joined PMI as its Scientific Affairs Manager in July 2019.²⁹

Philip Morris International Commissioned Reports

PMI commissioned PR firm Frost and Sullivan to produce three reports on public attitudes towards Next Generation Products.

The first report, in January 2019, said “57% of [Australian] healthcare professionals agree that alternative products to cigarettes should be legalised,” based on a survey of 126 healthcare professionals.³⁰³¹

In March 2019, Frost and Sullivan and PMI released a second detailed report on e-cigarette and HTP use in New Zealand, which said the public was in favour of the use of these products. At this time the New Zealand government was preparing to review regulation of NGPs.³²

In December 2020, PMI and Frost and Sullivan released a third report titled “Tobacco Harm Reduction and Novel Nicotine and Tobacco Products: Evidence from the Japanese Market.” As of December 2020, the full report is only available via registration.³³ According to the press release, the report states that the availability, and relaxed regulation, of HTPs such as IQOS  in Japan is associated with a drop in cigarette sales. It promotes the Japanese government’s regulatory model and argues that “The availability of HTPs has had a low impact on the initiation of tobacco use by never-smokers and re-initiation by former smokers”.³⁴ There is little independent evidence on HTP use, including on uptake by non-smokers, and much of PMI’s evidence is based on short term assessments. For more information see PMI’s IQOS: Use, “Switching” and “Quitting.

Harm Reduction Webinar

On 7 December 2020, Frost and Sullivan hosted a webinar on the third report commission by PMI called “Tobacco Harm Reduction and Novel Nicotine and Tobacco Products: Evidence from the Japanese Market”.³⁵

One of the speakers on the webinar agenda was Dr. Kumamaru Hiroya, Vice Director of the AOI University Hospital.³⁵ Hiroya sits on the Expert Advisory Group of the Coalition of Asia-Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA).³⁶

Tobacco Tactics Resources

• E-Cigarettes
• Heated Tobacco Products
• Next Generation Products
• Philip Morris International
• PMI’s IQOS: Use, “Switching” and “Quitting”

References

The post Frost & Sullivan appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Background

The agency is owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies and was formed in January 2001, with the merger of Shandwick International and Weber Public Relations Worldwide.³⁸

It is the world’s second largest PR agency and earned $865 million in fee income in 2019, up three per cent on the previous year.³⁹

Weber Shandwick’s headquarters are in New York and the agency employs 4,865 staff globally.⁴⁰ It has offices in 79 cities worldwide, with a network extending to 129 cities on six continents.⁴¹

It says that truth is one of its values. The agency states: “No fake news here, without truth there’s no trust. Without trust, there’s no audience willing to engage.”⁴² The agency boasts that it is known “for seamless cooperation in pursuit of our clients’ needs. Our specialty firms allow us to provide a complete marketing services offering, from culture marketing to public affairs, advertising, and market research.” Weber Shandwick’s companies include:

• Bomoda, a data science and business intelligence firm
• Cappuccino, a digital marketing and technology agency
• Flipside, a mobile and digital agency
• KRC Research, a public opinion research consultancy
• Powell Tate, a strategic communications firm
• Resolute Digital, a digital marketing and technology agency
• Revive Health, a marketing communications firm specialising in the health sector
• That Lot, a social creative agency
• United Minds, a management consultancy
• Prime Weber Shandwick, composed of communications agency Prime and United Minds⁴³

Links with the Tobacco Industry Over the Decades

Prior to the merger with the Weber Group, the Shandwick Group had links with the tobacco industry stretching back to the late 1970s.⁴⁴ In 2000, Shandwick was sacked by its client the American Cancer Society after it discovered the PR agency was also representing RJ Reynolds.⁴⁵

Shandwick’s regional hub in the Ukraine has also worked for RJ Reynolds and was the “first agency to use sponsored television as a method of brand awareness development” according to a presentation made to BAT in June 2000. The report added: “As a result RJ Reynolds brand Camel enjoyed over 240 hours of television brand exposure at less than $25 per minute with the result that in just six months sales climbed 12 Nielson points against their biggest competitor Marlboro. All this at a time when tobacco advertising on television was banned and Marlboro’s advertising budget was 4 times larger.”⁴⁶

Shandwick International, in a letter to RJ Reynolds in October 2000, recommended that the tobacco firm “reframe the debate” and consider doing research to show the amount collected in taxes from tobacco sales and how those taxes are used for health and education. It also suggested finding out “how much taxes would be raised in various jurisdictions to compensate for the loss of all tobacco revenues.”⁴⁷

The Bozell Sawyer Miller Group, which merged with Weber Shandwick in 2001,⁴⁸ also had a track record in promoting the interests of big tobacco. In 1997 it drew up a communications plan for tobacco firms to deal with the legal settlement that was being negotiated with US authorities to settle a series of lawsuits. The plan stated the “need to reposition the settlement as an historic opportunity for a comprehensive solution to outstanding tobacco issues.” It should make clear that any such deal “can’t be done without industry compliance and the industry getting something in return.”

The plan suggested that an “exit strategy” would be created as a result of “making it clear that this is a “deal” that in order to get the things people want, the industry has to get restrictions on lawsuits in return.”⁴⁹

Weber Shandwick’s ties to tobacco

Weber Shandwick’s history of working for tobacco companies is revealed in Tobacco legacy documents publicly disclosed as a result of a series of US court cases in the 1990s.

The agency has worked on communications campaigns for the likes of Brown & Williamson,⁵⁰ and British American Tobacco.

In a presentation to BAT in March 2001, Weber Shandwick outlined the long term aim of positioning BAT “as a responsible and responsive company.” The agency stressed the need to find “an independent neutral, credible facilitator to persuade stakeholders to engage with BAT.”⁵¹

Its tobacco clients have also included Lorillard, for whom the agency ran anti-smoking campaigns aimed at teenagers,⁵² and it has worked for Philip Morris in trying to persuade American women who “distrust and dislike” the company to become “open to listening to Philip Morris’ point of view.”⁵³

In 2001 Weber Shandwick came up with a communications strategy for the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation in a bid to promote the firm as open and responsible. This included arranging for Nicholas Brookes, Chief Executive of Brown & Williamson, to give a speech at the National Press Club in Washington DC on the topic of “being a responsible company in a controversial industry.” Weber Shandwick also handled the PR for the launch of a new filtered Pall Mall cigarette.⁵⁴

At the same time it was working for major tobacco firms, the agency was also being paid by the State of Minnesota to run an important anti-smoking campaign aimed at young people. A tractor trailer was sent on a tour around the state with tobacco company documents – obtained through legal actions against the industry – exposing the marketing of cigarettes. The tactic proved effective in getting the attention of teenagers, and the six-week tour reached around one million kids, according to Ted Johnson, a manager on the account. The campaign also copied a tobacco industry tactic in getting artists to take part in a live tour to back a music CD. Johnson said: “Whenever in doubt about tactics, we ask ‘What would Big Tobacco do?”⁵⁵

Links to UK government

Weber Shandwick has connections to cabinet ministers in the UK government.

Priti Patel, appointed Home Secretary in July 2019, worked for the agency from 2000 to 2003 and was a key member of the team working on the BAT account.

Ed Taylor, who is the managing director of the agency’s corporate affairs practice, is a former special adviser to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.⁵⁶

Revolving door

Several agency staff have subsequently gone to work for BAT, and vice versa.

One example of a BAT employee moving to Weber Shandwick is Jacobo de Aranzadi Higueras, who is now working as a consultant for Accenture. He was an External Affairs Executive for BAT between June 2017 and June 2018, before leaving to take up a role as Senior Associate, Public Affairs, at Weber Shandwick.⁵⁷

Markus Lindblad, former Chief Operating Officer at Weber Shandwick in Sweden, left the agency in 2012 and a few months later started work at BAT as Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Sweden.⁵⁸

Abandoning the past?

In May 2019, Kate Lowry, Weber Shandwick’s director of global corporate communications, declared: “Weber Shandwick will not work on any e-cigarette products and has not worked on any in the past.” She added: “We also will not work for the tobacco industry or tobacco products as has been our long-standing policy.”⁵⁹

It is not clear how long Weber Shandwick has taken this stance. It appears that the agency was working for BAT as recently as 2011. Miral Mourad, the agency’s Group Director in Egypt between September 2010 and July 2011, worked for clients including BAT, according to her LinkedIn profile.⁶⁰

Although the company claims it has never worked on e-cigarette products, Weber Shandwick has worked for vaping retailer Kix⁶¹⁶² as well as a company called E Cigarette World.⁶³.

Weber Shandwick has yet to sign up to the #QuitBigTobacco pledge and refuse to work for tobacco or tobacco-related clients. More than 250 agencies, including the world’s top ranked PR agency Edelman, and brands have signed the pledge, which is a campaign run by public health consultancy Vital Strategies.⁶⁴

Weber Shandwick’s parent company, Intergroup, regards any crackdown against tobacco products as a potential threat. In the part of its 2019 annual report detailing areas of risk for the company, it states: “Legislators, agencies and other governmental units may also continue to initiate proposals to ban the advertising of specific products, such as alcohol, tobacco or marijuana products, and to impose taxes on or deny deductions for advertising, which, if successful, may hinder our ability to accomplish our clients’ goals and have an adverse effect on advertising expenditures and, consequently, on our revenues.”

The annual report also warns: “we could suffer reputational risk as a result of governmental or legal action or from undertaking work that may be challenged by consumer groups or considered controversial.”⁶⁵

Weber Shandwick’s senior management:

• Jack Leslie, Chairman
• Andy Polansky, Executive Chairman
• Gail Heimann, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Kate Bullinger, President, United Minds
• Sung Chang, Chief Impact Officer
• Joe Danek, Chief Financial Officer, North America
• Joy Farber Kolo, President, North America
• Sara Gavin, Chief Client Officer
• Josh Gilbert, Executive Creative Director, Global Practices
• Abby Gold, Chief Employee Experience Officer
• Judith Harrison, Senior Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion
• Susan Howe, Chief Growth Officer
• Pam Jenkins, President, Global Public Affairs; and President, Weber Shandwick South
• Baxter Jolly, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific
• Jean Lee Swagert, Chief Human Resources Officer, North America
• Paul Massey, President, Powell Tate and Global Lead, Social Impact
• Cameron Murray, Senior Vice President, Human Resources & Talent, EMEA & APAC
• Deb Nichols, Chief Financial Officer
• Lee Noonan, Chief Technology Officer
• Brian Offutt, Chief Workforce Innovation & Operations Officer
• Chris Perry, Chief Innovation Officer
• Laura Schoen, Chair, Latin America, and President, Global Healthcare Practice
• Tim Scott, Chief Financial Officer, Asia Pacific
• Micho Spring, Chair, Global Corporate Practice and President, New England
• Jill Tannenbaum, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer⁶⁶

Weber Shandwick’s major clients:

• ALDI
• Amazon
• Anheuser-Busch InBev
• Chevrolet
• ExxonMobil
• General Motors
• GMC
• GlaxoSmithKline
• IBM
• Mars
• Mattel
• Milk Processor Education Program
• Nestlé
• Novartis
• Roche
• Royal Caribbean Cruises
• Unilever
• Verizon⁶⁷

References

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MarketKonnect is a subsidiary of APCO Worldwide and is based at the PR firm’s global headquarters in Washington DC.⁶⁸

MarketKonnect LLC was registered in Delaware, US, in May 2019.⁶⁹ Another branch of the firm was established in the District of Columbia, US, in February 2020.⁷⁰

Margery Kraus, Executive Chairman of APCO, is also the executing officer and governor of MarketKonnect LLC.⁷¹.

Low profile

The company does not have a website and there is very little information about it in the public domain.⁷² It is not mentioned on the APCO website.⁷³

Relationship with the Tobacco Industry

MarketKonnect’s parent company, APCO, has worked closely with the tobacco industry since it formed in 1984.⁷⁴ You can read more on this history of close connection on our APCO page.

There are also long-standing links between Derek Yach, President of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), and APCO. In 2014 he was appointed a member of the PR firm’s Health Advisory Board.⁷⁵ Yach remained on the Board until 2018.⁷⁶

Connection to China

Minutes from a special meeting of the FSFW’s board of directors in February 2019 state that APCO is the “lead group in managing the registration process in China” and has been asked to “charter and register the Foundation in China and establish the necessary governance, structural and staffing framework for the Foundation”.⁷⁷

The minutes state: “Dr. Yach described how establishing the Foundation and its programs in China will be challenging and will require operating tightly and with great sensitivity”.⁷⁷

In 2019, APCO subsidiary MarketKonnect was paid US$1,137,992 by the Foundation for “consulting services”.⁷⁸ It is unclear whether this sum relates to the US$1.3 million the FSFW agreed to pay APCO in 2019 to “establish the Foundation in China.”⁷⁹

Despite its subsidiary, MarketKonnect, receiving a contract with more than a million dollars from the FSFW, there is no mention of APCO directly in the Foundation’s 2019 tax return. Nor is there any description of APCO’s planned work in China on the Foundation’s website other than in its board minutes.⁷⁸

Tobacco Tactics Resources

Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

APCO Associates

References

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