Universities and Tobacco

III. Cigarette companies’ recruitment of students at career fairs

Little attention has been paid by health organizations to the ongoing involvement by cigarette manufacturers Altria (Philip Morris USA, maker of the number one brand Marlboro, and Reynolds American, maker of Newport, Camel, and Winston) in career centers at major universities and at job fairs held on their campuses each spring and fall. In the 21st century, these have included the University of Alabama, the University of Arizona, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Georgia, the University of Kansas, the University of North Carolina, the University of Texas, the University of Virginia, the University of Washington, and dozens of others. At these job fairs, recruiters tout the tobacco companies’ integrity and social responsibility while insisting that they only market cigarettes to adults who already smoke. The companies look for athletes, debate team members, women, ethnic minorities and marketing and public relations majors to become territory sales managers, whose responsibilities consist of restocking tobacco products in convenience stores, supermarkets, and drugstores. These college graduates thus continue the cycle of promoting nicotine addiction via cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, nicotine lozenges, and e-cigarettes to those most likely to take up tobacco products: the young, the poor, and the least educated. This part of the exhibition explores the cigarette makers’ recruitment efforts at the University of Alabama, the University of Washington, and Syracuse University.