Growing A Smokeless America
Our Commitment to Underage
Access Prevention
Our products are responsibly marketed to existing adult tobacco, vapor and nicotine consumers through tailored advertisements that only use models who are aged 35 and older.
Underage access prevention is critically important across all areas of our business.
Reynolds American is the U.S. parent company of, among others, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company; Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, Inc.; American Snuff Company, LLC; R. J. Reynolds Vapor Company; Modoral Brands, Inc. (collectively the ‘operating companies’ or ‘companies’). Reynolds Marketing Services Company (RMSC) provides support for the operating companies and plays a critical role in our Underage Access Prevention efforts.
We conduct our business ethically, legally, and responsibly. Reynolds employees have been—and will continue to be—committed to Retailer Compliance, Responsible Marketing, and Underage Access Prevention through a variety of trainings and programs.
Standards of Business Conduct (SoBC)
Our Standards of Business Conduct (SoBC) covers underage access prevention and other areas such as anti-bribery and anti-corruption, political contributions, anti-money laundering, and tax evasion. Our annual SoBC sign-off is a key component of delivering our business in an ethical and lawful manner and with integrity. We have consistently achieved 100% sign-off completion.
iCommit
We educate our employees on effective ways of marketing our products while delivering on our commitment to underage access prevention. All of our employees must complete a training module covering various marketing practices and guidelines to ensure that across all channels, our marketing aims to appeal to tobacco and nicotine consumers aged 25 and up.
Right Decisions, Right Now: 35 Years of Educating Youth About the Dangers of Tobacco, Vapor and Nicotine Use
We believe that educating youth about the dangers of tobacco, vapor and nicotine product use is the right thing to do. It’s important to our companies’ long-term strategic goal of transforming the nicotine industry. Underage prevention makes good business sense because, as we help the continuing decline in underage cigarette use, all interested parties and the public may gain a greater understanding of our commitment to this issue.
In 1991, we began the “Right Decisions Right Now (RDRN)” underage tobacco prevention program that offers materials to educators, parents, and students in grades 5-9, to provide them with tools to help persuade youth to be tobacco- and nicotine-free by making good decisions. The “Right Decisions Right Now: Be Tobacco Free” program was independently tested nationally and was found to be successful on two key measures: (1) recent smoking levels decreased significantly in test schools, particularly for grades 8-9; and (2) the program lowered anticipated tobacco use among middle school-age students. In addition, students’ susceptibility to peer pressure and their perception of the popularity of tobacco-using peers both showed significant declines versus the control groups. The program also has been updated to include a vapor module.
Today, we continue to support the Right Decisions Right Now program. Reynolds employees are encouraged to present the RDRN program to a youth-focused group and each group is entitled to a grant of $500 – $1,000.
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