For the last several years, anti-tobacco industry groups and individuals have come together to organize a day of action and advocacy in Richmond, Virginia at the Philip Morris USA’s annual shareholder meeting in May of each year. In 2020, due to travel restrictions around COVID-19, we decided to hold a virtual (online) week or activities to highlight tobacco industry lies and how to counter them.
In 2021, we once again held virtual events due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our activities started with a kick-off event on April 8, 2021 and continued with activities through “No Menthol Sunday” and the Philip Morris Shareholders’ meeting which was held on May 20, 2021. This included virtual programming – through social media, training webinars, at-home activities – for fostering youth engagement and mobilizing against the tobacco industry!
For 2022, Philip Morris USA announced that they will still not have an in-person shareholders’ meeting but will continue to hold their meeting virtually. As a result, we will be continuing to offer virtual training and programming for this event. We are also helping to organize coordinated local in-person activities to correspond with the shareholders meeting involving several states. Please contact us for more information about how you can get involved.