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February 12, 2014

Living your brand is not always easy. Just ask CVS.

CVS Bans Tobacco

CVS Caremark announced last week that it plans to stop selling tobacco products at its stores by October of this year. This make CVS, the second-largest drugstore chain in the United States, the first national pharmacy to pull tobacco from its shelves.

CVS deserves credit for not only writing an aspirational mission statement focused on health care services but actually living its brand by stopping the sale of the deadliest product on the planet. You wouldn’t expect to walk into your doctor’s office and be sold a pack of cigarettes. Likewise, if CVS wants to truly position itself as an innovative working to make health care better, it can no longer sell tobacco.

CVS’s decision “shows real corporate social responsibility,” said Stanton Glantz of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. “They’re walking away from a bunch of money. It’s very impressive. The symbolic value is just huge.”

The announcement is relatively a small financial sacrifice, accounting for about 1.6% of CVS’s annual sales, but that’s still close to two billion dollars. I repeat: two billion. That’s money that undoubtedly will be picked up by competitors like Walgreen and Rite Aid, which continue to sell tobacco.

Does CVS’s decision put pressure on other retailers to follow its lead?

“This action may not lead many people to stop smoking,” wrote Troyen Brennan, CVS’s chief medical officer, in an essay published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week, “But if other retailers follow, tobacco products will become much more difficult to obtain.”

President Barack Obama, a former smoker who tried for years to stop, immediately praised CVS, saying in a statement that this powerful example “will help advance my Administration’s efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer, and heart disease, as well as bring down health care costs — ultimately saving lives and protecting untold numbers of families from pain and heartbreak for years to come.”

The first lady — who encouraged her husband to kick the habit — also took to Twitter with this statement:

FLOTUS - CVS

CVS has put the first stake in the ground but what happens next will be fun to watch. Will other pharmacies follow their lead, whether because their hand is forced by the public or just because it is the right message to send? And secondarily, where is the line drawn on what is healthy and what is not? Should these companies also feel compelled to quit selling alcohol or sugary soft drinks, which also can contribute to health problems?

What say you, America? Shoot me a tweet @tomonedge with your opinion.