Tobacco On Trial

DOJ attorney Robert Williams is asking Philip Morris Employee Jeanne Bonhomme detailed questions about Philip Morris’ age verification/mailing procedures in connection with the company’s wildly complex and massive consumer database–which is probably certainly one of the first, and possibly one of the largest of any consumer database in the world.

Ms. Bonhomme managed the database from 1998 to 2000, after which she became the director of research in the youth smoking prevention department.

In 2003, DOJ had Philip Morris perform some sophisticated searches on the database, and, according to the resulting reports, found among other things that during Ms. Bonhomme’s tenure alone, Philip Morris had “sent nearly 325 million direct marketing mailings to individuals for whom Philip Morris had nothing more than a self-provided signature to verify their age.”

Ms. Bonhomme claims such searches as the DOJ performed are very complex. She tended to answer questions in her Written Direct Testimony,

I have no knowledge of this search document and cannot attest to its accuracy.

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From the DOJ Witness List:

Bonhomme, Jeanne

US Fact Witness

Ms. Bonhomme, currently Director of Youth Smoking Prevention Research for Philip Morris, has been with the company for nearly 25 years. During her career at Philip Morris, Ms. Bonhomme served in the following positions:

–Director of Youth Smoking Prevention, 2000-present

–Director of Direct Mail Marketing, 1998-2000

–Manager, Program Development Information, 1996-1998

–Manager of Other Premium Brands, 1994-1996

–Part-Time Manager of Marketing Research, 1985-1994

–Manager of Marketing Research, 1981-1985

–Marketing Research Analyst, 1979-1981

During her employment with Philip Morris, Ms. Bonhomme has been involved in multiple aspects of the company’s business, particularly conducting consumer marketing research that contributed to Philip Morris’s cigarette advertising and marketing campaigns.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 10th, 2005 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.