Philip Morris ties lead some to a boycott of Kraft Foods

Macaroni and cheese may be full of fat and carbohydrates, but that's not the real reason several Penn students are taking it out of their diets. At a small press conference inside Hillel yesterday morning, several Penn students joined a prominent professor and a representative from a national grassroots organization in announcing their boycott of Kraft Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of the powerful Philip Morris tobacco corporation. Noli Hoye, a 22-year-old graduate of Haverford College and field organizer for INFACT -- a non-profit corporate watchdog group founded in 1977 -- told several local media outlets that tobacco products pose a "profound threat to public health." "This future epidemic will result in more lives lost than all previous epidemics," Hoye said. Several student groups -- including the Penn Environmental Group, Amnesty International, the Chinese Students Association and the Society for Chemical Engineers -- have joined together to form a tobacco boycott campaign on campus. Organizers at the event also said they planned to pressure Wharton Public Policy Chairperson Elizabeth Bailey, who sits on the board of directors at Philip Morris, into discouraging the corporation from marketing to young children. "We're really encouraging her to use her leadership," Hoye said. Bailey did not return calls left at her office and her home last night. INFACT held its Kraft Boycott Visibility Month in November, and has solicited more than 100 signatures on campus during the past several weeks. Hoye said INFACT's primary intent is to expose Philip Morris' advertising practices, which she said are designed to "aggressively market" to children and young adults. Recent statistics have shown a continual increase in the number of teenagers who start smoking each year. "Most of this promotion is aimed at and appeals to young people," Hoye said, adding that studies have indicated that the Marlboro Man, with his "rebellious and independent" aura, is intended to appeal to teenage boys especially. Environmental Studies Department Chairperson Robert Giegengack also spoke at yesterday's conference, stressing smoking's negative effect on the environment. "It's very hard to portray the people who run the tobacco industry as anything but villains," Giegengack said. The press conference was sparsely attended, with only three Penn students there. Two of the students, dressed as macaroni and cheese boxes, held up a banner announcing the boycott. When asked whether it would be difficult to mobilize their cause on Penn's reputedly apathetic campus, neither Hoye nor College junior Nati Passow, a member of the Penn Environmental Group, seemed fazed. "Lots of times it doesn't take that many people to have a big effect," Passow said. Added Hoye, who first spoke on campus in late October, "[The movement has] really started to gain momentum. Everyone we've talked to in the past few days has been very supportive of the campaign." Students at Stanford University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill protested last month against Kraft recruitment on their campuses.

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