The tobacco industry invented science denial as public-relations strategy

Evidence

The story begins at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1953. Here the heads of the major tobacco companies came together to figure out what to do in light of a devastating scientific paper that had recently been published linking cigarette tar to cancer in lab mice. The leader of the summit was John Hill, a legendary figure in public relations, who suggested that instead of continuing to fight among themselves over whose cigarettes were healthier, they needed a unified approach where they would “fight the science” by sponsoring additional “research.” The executives agreed to fund this under the auspices of Hill’s newly created Tobacco Industry Research Committee whose mission was to convince the public that there was “no proof” that cigarette smoking caused cancer and that previous work purporting to show such a link was being questioned by “numerous scientists.” — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 63

Categorization

• SHARE: A great, specific anecdote for anyone interested in the history of PR or disinformation strategy.
• XREF: connects to: Post-truth tactics first matured in right-wing science denial campaigns — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 52; The tobacco industry’s PR strategy manufactured doubt about EPA science — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1670; Corporate science denial was born when tobacco firms funded fake research. (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• The tobacco industry’s PR strategy manufactured doubt about EPA science #exemplifies (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1670
• The tobacco industry’s manufactured-doubt playbook became a template for all later science denial. #expands (0.92) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 67
• Corporate science denial was born when tobacco firms funded fake research. #expands (0.90)
• Tobacco’s manufactured doubt predated and enabled climate denial playbooks #expands (0.90) — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 788
• The tobacco industry manufactured public doubt as its primary defense strategy #corroborates (0.88) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1658
• Tobacco firms ridiculed science showing tobacco harms to discredit it #exemplifies (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1685
• Tobacco firms rebutted passive-smoking claims by attacking the science #exemplifies (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1669
• The fossil fuel industry replicated the tobacco denial playbook #expands (0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 246
• Climate-change denial organizations were directly funded by tobacco and fossil-fuel interests #expands (0.80) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 71
• Manufacturing public doubt about evidence is a deliberate corporate strategy for harm denial #expands (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1658
• Think tanks deliberately manufacture public doubt about settled science to shape policy #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 626
• Science denial pioneered tactics now applied across all factual reality #expands (0.78)
• Tobacco companies deliberately suppressed their own addictive-product research to evade legal liability #expands (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1691
• The tobacco industry denied advertising’s effect while spending billions on it #qualifies (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1659