Louis C. Camilleri
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Altria Group, Inc.
120 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017-5592


Dear Mr. Camilleri,

As a nurse, I am writing to ask that you develop a plan to voluntarily end active marketing and promotion of tobacco products. Since the company now accepts that cigarettes are indeed addictive and deadly, the socially responsible thing to do is to stop promoting their use.

To continue to promote cigarettes is not in line with societal expectations for a responsible corporation. Your company’s own surveys show that the public is overwhelmingly in favor of ending cigarette advertising and believes that cigarette advertisements misrepresent the true nature of the product and its effects. Therefore, voluntarily ending active marketing and promotion would, in fact, achieve genuine “societal alignment” and would send an unambiguous message to the public that the company is sincere in caring about the welfare of its customers and the public.

All the funds the company provides to battered women’s shelters, meals for seniors, etc. cannot possibly compensate for the cigarette-caused suffering and death witnessed day in and day out by thousands of nurses in this country and millions worldwide. I would like to see the company show real leadership in developing and implementing the “end game” you discussed more than ten years ago.

Please let me know when Altria will initiate serious discussion of this socially critical issue.


Sincerely,