British American Tobacco
In my book Smoking is a Psychological Problem I describe (Ch. 25) a visit I made to the headquarters of British American Tobacco (BAT) in Southampton in southern England in 2015.
BAT has a 10 per cent share of the UK cigarette market and is therefore responsible for about 10,000 deaths a year in Britain. Does this worry them? Of course it does, their spokesman says, but they attempt to justify it by claiming they’re trying to develop safer alternative tobacco products to ordinary cancer sticks. So that’s all right then!
BAT’s hypocrisy will make you feel sick. Two posts give further examples: in one they attempt to use the tragedy of the Japanese 2011 earthquake and tsunami to promote themselves; in another we consider their duplicitous website and the obscene salary of their CEO, Mr Nic-‘otine’-andro Durante, who is so proud of selling death for a living.
How about BAT doing the decent thing (don’t laugh) and STOP MAKING CIGARETTES?