Licensed to Kill is the name of a new tobacco company founded in Virginia on March 19,2003. Whether it will ever really sell tobacco is another story. The company was founded simply to prove how easy it is to set up a corporation whose charter might not be all that welcome if the truth was actually told. Sure, it’s kind of a spoof. Here’s a clip from their corporate statement:
“Licensed to Kill, Inc. is a tobacco company. We knowingly kill people for profit. And we’re proud of it. In fact, it is the explicit aim of our corporation. Just check our articles of incorporation.
We’re not like other tobacco companies that try to obscure what their business is about. If you market cigarettes, you market death. It’s that simple. In a country which effectively allows corporations to be formed without regard to their purpose, corporations are allowed to kill people to make money. Addiction to cigarettes may be lethal, but profiting from spreading death is perfectly legal.
Truthfully, as a corporation, we couldn’t care less about the health hazards of smoking our products. Our bottom line is and always will be boosting profits for our stockholders. That is, after all, what corporations are about. You could say that we’re ‘addicted to profit.’ “
Clever.
