It was 1953, the cancer-smoking link was now firmly established, and the tobacco industry faced ruin. It was time for the disinformation campaign to get serious.
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| Tobacco farm, Virginia. | (USDA) |
As the evidence linking smoking to lung cancer became conclusive, the tobacco industry pioneered new techniques to create uncertainty, doubt and delay. Four weeks of frantic activity around Christmas 1953 delivered a definitive corporate disinformation campaign. It has since been adopted as the template for many other such campaigns. This PR initiative isn’t just a historical curiosity; the methods are still in use today, and they’re still relevant today.
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| © The American Tobacco Company, 1950 |
In Part 1 of this set of posts, I looked at the early medical evidence linking smoking to lung cancer, and at the tobacco industry’s early marketing response to health concerns.
In the nineteen-forties the published medical evidence on the smoking-cancer link was still suggestive, and cigarette advertising got around health concerns by using vague associations with medical authority and scientific progress.
By 1953, however, everything had changed; the evidence that smoking caused most lung cancer was becoming conclusive, and the tobacco industry faced possible destruction. Then a widely-reported speech by Dr. Alton Ochsner, a prominent lung cancer specialist, brought the issue to a head. Ochsner was a pioneer in the study of the smoking-lung cancer link. In a 1952 paper he had written “For some time two of us have been convinced that there is a causal relationship between the increased incidence of bronchogenic carcinoma and the increased use of cigarettes.” [1]. In his 1953 speech he remarked that “the male population of the United States would be decimated if cigarette smoking increases as it has done in the past…” [2].
In the wake of Ochsner’s speech, the tobacco industry had to confront the health issue head-on. It had to convince the public, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that the cause of lung cancer was still uncertain and in doubt. The industry turned to John W. Hill, founder of the Hill and Knowlton public relations company, for advice:
Perhaps the last straw that led the tobacco industry to turn to Hill and Knowlton for help was when Dr. Ochsner spoke in New York City on December 8, 1953, and asserted that “the male population of the United States would be decimated if cigarette smoking increases as it has done in the past unless some steps are taken to remove the cancer-producing factor from cigarettes.” Cigarette stocks dropped by one to four points after the meeting [...] Within days after the speech by Dr. Ochsner, six nervous company presidents turned to John Hill for help.
Hill and Knowlton Retained, TIRC Set upIn response to an urgent telegram from Paul M. Hahn, president of the American Tobacco Company, the presidents of six major companies met in New York City December 10 and 11, 1953, to consider what action they could take to mute the evidence of the dangers of smoking. As executives do when faced with a public relations crisis, they agreed to confer with John W. Hill.
John W. Hill II,
Health and Morality – Tobacco’s Counter Campaign [2]
Less than two weeks after the New York meeting, John Hill proposed the way forward. The tobacco industry had to form a PR front organisation, and that organisation had to have the word “Research” in its name. As Hill and Knowlton explained, the word “Research” in the title would “give weight and added credence to the Committee’s statements”:
On December 22, 1953, H&K sent a recommendation to the six presidents stating:
- Because of the serious nature of the attacks on cigarettes and the vast publicity given them over the air [...] a hysteria of fear appears to be developing throughout the country. [...] This publicity has given rise to a situation which makes it imperative for the cigarette makers to inform the public regarding the facts … The following name is submitted to the Committee: Cigarette Research and Information Committee. It is believed the word “Research” is needed in the name to give weight and added credence to the Committee’s statements. [...]
The presidents agreed on this approach and decided that the Committee would be headquartered in H&K’s offices in the Empire State Building.
John W. Hill II,
Health and Morality – Tobacco’s Counter Campaign [2]
The front organisation was quickly set up with the name “Tobacco Industry Research Committee” (TIRC), and the PR campaign swung into action:
Hill and Knowlton rapidly put its hurriedly-drafted program into action. The first step was to publish an advertisement on January 4, 1954, in 448 daily newspapers across the nation. This advertisement, “A Frank Statement to the Public by the Makers of Cigarettes” [...] even today expresses fairly well the industry’s public relations position.
John W. Hill II,
Health and Morality – Tobacco’s Counter Campaign [2]
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A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers (TIRC) |
TTLA |
The first crisis meeting had been held on December 10, 1953, and the advertisement was published on January 4, 1954, just 25 days later. In that short burst of intense activity, the tobacco companies and the Hill and Knowlton PR agency had put together the key elements of the corporate disinformation strategy in its modern form. It was a defining moment for the public relations industry.
Here is a transcript of the advertisement that the newly formed Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) published [3]. It appeared in 448 daily newspapers in the U.S. on January 4, 1954. The title was “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers”:
to Cigarette Smokers
recent reports on experiments with mice have given wide publicity to a theory that cigarette smoking is in some way linked with lung cancer in human beings.
Although conducted by doctors of professional standing, these experiments are not regarded as conclusive in the field of cancer research. However, we do not believe that any serious medical research, even though its results are inconclusive should be disregarded or lightly dismissed.
At the same time, we feel it is in the public interest to call attention to the fact that eminent doctors and research scientists have publicly questioned the claimed significance of these experiments.
Distinguished authorities point out:
- That medical research of recent years indicates many possible causes of lung cancer.
- That there is no agreement among the authorities regarding what the cause is.
- That there is no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes.
- That statistics purporting to link cigarette smoking with the disease could apply with equal force to any one of many other aspects of modern life. Indeed the validity of the statistics themselves is questioned by numerous scientists.
We accept an interest in people’s health as a basic responsibility, paramount to every other consideration in our business.
We believe the products we make are not injurious to health.
We always have and always will cooperate closely with those whose task it is to safeguard the public health.
For more than 300 years tobacco has given solace, relaxation, and enjoyment to mankind. At one time or another during those years critics have held it responsible for practically every disease of the human body. One by one these charges have been abandoned for lack of evidence.
Regardless for the record of the past, the fact that cigarette smoking today should even be suspected as a cause of a serious disease is a matter of deep concern to us.
Many people have asked us what we are doing too meet the public’s concern aroused by the recent reports. Here is the answer:
- We are pledging aid and assistance to the research effort into all phases of tobacco use and health. This joint financial aid will of course be in addition to what is already being contributed by individual companies.
- For this purpose we are establishing a joint industry group consisting initially of the undersigned. This group will be known as tobacco industry research committee.
- In charge of the research activities of the Committee will be a scientist of unimpeachable integrity and national repute. In addition there will be an Advisory Board of scientists disinterested in the cigarette industry. A group of distinguished men from medicine, science, and education will be invited to serve on this Board. These scientists will advise the Committee on its research activities.
This statement is being issued because we believe the people are entitled to know where we stand on this matter and what we intend to do about it.
J. B. Hutson, President
If you take TIRC’s four-point “distinguished authorities point out” argument and strip out the references to tobacco, you’re left with a template for many of the pseudoscience-based corporate disinformation campaigns that followed. It has become a standard denialist manifesto:
- …research indicates many possible causes of [......];
- …there is no agreement among the authorities regarding the cause of [......];
- …there is no proof that [......] is one of the causes;
- …the validity of the statistics is questioned by numerous scientists.
Action plan: Set up a PR front organisation masquerading as a research institute.
John Hill pioneered the use of pseudoscience and bogus front organisations to sow confusion and doubt about scientific issues. What did Hill himself make of his role in the lung cancer disinformation campaign? How did he justify his actions? We’ll never know:
Strangely Hill’s memoir, The Making of a Public Relations Man, published in 1963, stands silent on the tobacco account.
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How much influence did John Hill have on the establishment of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee and on the formulation of this public relations defense. When directly asked this question in 1964 by Col. George Hamel, who was then writing his master’s thesis at the University of Wisconsin on Hill’s career, Hill wrote Hamel: “I decline to comment on this matter on the basis that this is an active, highly sensitive account.” Which may explain Hill’s omission of the account in his memoir. Publicly, the firm was given credit for a highly influential role in the cigarette companies’ adoption of a public relations campaign.John W. Hill II,
Health and Morality – Tobacco’s Counter Campaign [2]
More Information
The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has a set of documents on the topic of the Hill & Knowlton public relations campaign formulated on behalf of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee. These documents are available on the website of the Tobacco Trial Lawyers’ Association [4].
On December 28, 1953, one week before the publication of “A Frank Statement”, tobacco executives met with their PR agency to discuss the draft wording of the advertisement. A copy of that draft has been found, and handwritten notes show the modifications they made to the wording during that meeting [5]. The alterations are revealing. The Appendix on page 2 has a transcript of the draft copy with the modifications.
Related Posts
References
- Bronchogenic Carcinoma, A. Ochsner, P.T. DeCamp, M.E. DeBakey and C.J. Ray, J. Am. Med. Assoc. 148, 691–697 (1952) (WebCite cache)
- Health and Morality – Tobacco’s Counter Campaign, J.W. Hill II, Bates No. 2022849007/9028, Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, University of California, San Francisco (Written on a date between Oct. 1991 and July 1992.)
- A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers, Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC), January 4, 1954. (Tobacco Trial Lawyers’ Association, WebCite cache)
- John W. Hill Papers from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Tobacco Trial Lawyers’ Association
- A Frank Statement to the Public By the Makers of Cigarettes, Draft copy, Anne Landman’s Collection, Tobacco Documents Online, draft dated December 26, 1953, amendments dated December 28, 1953
- About Tobacco Documents Online, Tobacco Documents Online website.
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3 responses so far ↓
Where there’s smoke, the climate change Denial lobby « Greenfyre’s // September 2, 2009 at 3:45 pm
[...] Tobacco, part 2: “A Frank Statement” [...]
Robert L. Armstrong // November 6, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Yes, there is no doubt that the tobacco industry are the biggest bull shitters of all time… Once I realized this to be a truth it made quitting much easier to do and today I run a small but effective cessation group. Keep up the good work.
Robert L. Armstrong // November 6, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Yes, there is no doubt that the tobacco industry are the biggest liars of all time… Once I realized this to be a truth it made quitting much easier to do and today I run a small but effective cessation group. Keep up the good work.