Are you tired of buying your food from Philip Morris? How about your Kraft Macaroni and Cheese? Your Boca Burgers? Well, that’s all been taken care of – Philip Morris is changing its name to Altria.
Essentially, it’s a big PR move for a company that’s suffering. People don’t think very highly of Philip Morris, even though they constantly tell people that they’re a good company. The big deal behind this is to alleviate fears of consumers who face the same dilemma I mentioned in the comments of Ryan’s Ping: do I want to buy mac-and-cheese from the same company that makes cancer sticks? Now, if I wasn’t aware of this, I’d think, “Oh! Cool, now it’s all made by Altria.”
Which is PM’s big goal: to separate their food and death-on-a-stick target markets. Or as their marketese goes…
The proposal to clarify the parent company identity comes two years after a successful effort to improve the image of the Philip Morris family of companies.
Right, right. I imagine there are a good number of people who liked those feel-good commercials, and suddenly viewed PM as a big, cuddly, coughing, wheezing teddy bear.
In addition to the ethical dilemma, the name “Altria” just sounds stupid – and the logo is no better. It sounds like a new search engine or computer thingamajig… but that too is probably intentional. That way, people associate those products with a cigarette-and-booze company even less.
Disgusting. I’m anxious to see how the public reacts. -pm
Posted in Consumer Commentary