750,000 Die In UK Corporate Social Responsibility Scandal

Tobacco and smoking related deaths

At the British American Tobacco AGM young activists from round the world gathered to turn the tables on the tobacco giant to highlight its disgraced marketing tactics and mark the company's contribution to the 5 million tobacco related deaths each year. In the words of one young protester, "If they have 15% of the world market then they are responsible for 15% of the world's tobacco deaths, three quarters of a million deaths every year."

Nigerian Adeola Akinremi protested that BAT was selling cigarettes in quantities of two rather than packs of ten and twenty - a practice made illegal in the UK in 1991 as it makes cigarettes cheaper to buy for underage smokers. When Jeffries Briginshaw, Head of International Political and Regulatory Affairs, British American Tobacco insisted this was not the case Adeola pulled out a copy of the advertisement as proof. [1]

D-Myst and ATYC [2] two groups of teenagers from Liverpool sang a song they had specially composed for BAT "Ring a ring a roses, BAT supposes, nobody will notice when we all fall down" Embarrassed shareholders hurried into the meeting, unwilling to meet the eyes of the young people.[3] 16 year old Jake from Liverpool sat outside the AGM posing as a beggar with a card saying "Smoking killed my parents".