"...tobacco industry internal corporate documents produced during litigation between US States and the seven major tobacco industry organizations and other sources. These internal documents give a view into the workings of one of the largest and most influential industries in the United States."
This archive includes over 15 million documents including advertisements, tobacco company internal memos, transcripts of court depositions, television commercial videos, archived websites, and more.
>> More about the tobacco litigation documents
>> Examples of articles and books written using these documents
Here are notes taken by a Phillip Morris (tobacco company) employee at a meeting in November 1978. At this meeting, legal counsel advise the industry to continue funding tobacco-related research to show that "we don't think the case against smoking is closed."
This report was produced in 1985 to advise cigarette brands on marketing to Black, Hispanic, and military customers. See "Summary of Opportunities" and "Strategic Considerations" in each section for insight into how tobacco companies targeted these communities.
One way to focus on relevant documents for researching Marlboro advertising is limiting your search to the Phillip Morris settlement documents. Look under Search Options for Master Settlement Agreement, then choose Phillip Morris.
Examples:
Most documents in the TTDL have been tagged with a document type, such as a letter or an advertisement. You can use document types to find sources that have the kind of perspective you're looking for. For example, you might look at letters, emails, or presentations to find internal company perspectives.
Direct communications
Meetings
Planning documents
You can find a significant amount of advertising and other public-facing documents in the TTDL. There are also easier-to-navigate collections of tobacco company advertising, see Other Tobacco Document Collections.
Public-facing materials
Documents in the Phillip Morris Records collection have not been tagged by country, which makes it harder to find materials about a specific place.
Tips for finding documents about your country:
Use secondary sources to narrow down document dates
Require that document text include both the country name and the country adjective
Or try searching only within document titles. This can help pull up documents centrally focused on your country.
Eliminate irrelevant results using NOT
What words are likely to appear in the documents that you want to read?
Language changes over time, so consider the language your historical actors might have used. Looking at example documents from the time can be helpful for figuring this out. Also consider the tone and writing style used in different kinds of documents.
Let's say you're interested in studying 1990s tobacco marketing to Black communities in the US. You might try searching for: "African American" menthol
The Type filter lets you find particular kinds of documents and perspectives.
You might want to try a few different document Types and see what you find. For example, if you use the Advertisement filter, you might also want to try the Video filter (to see TV commercials), the Graphics filter, or the Advertising Copy filter.
