Daily Doc: B&W? Sep, 1979: Creating the Appearance of Controversy
Daily Doc: Creating the Appearance of Controversy
Title: Tobacco: Issues and Answers Actions
B&W? Sep, 1979
Bates #: 670591534/1579
November 9, 2000
By the mid-1970s, public health agencies had done a good job of getting word out to the public that tobacco caused deadly diseases. Science had proven the case and all that remained to be done was to keep spreading the word to the public. But rather than cooperating with public health agencies, as the industry promised in its widely-published "Frank Statement" of 1954, ("We always have and always will cooperate with those whose task it is to safeguard the public health." Daily Document posting of September 30, 2000, http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=TIMN0040888&if=avtidx) the tobacco industry took it upon itself to whip up the appearance of a "controversy" about smoking and health where there really was none at all.
The goal was stated succinctly by William Kloepfer, public relations manager of the Tobacco Institute, in this 1979 internal document,
"Our objective is to bring a seemingly closed subject back to the level of controversy in the public's mind."How how many people might never have started smoking, and how many lives would have been saved worldwide had the tobacco industry not worked so hard, and invested so much money and years of effort, into the fight against public health?
CITATION
Title: Tobacco: Issues and Answers Actions
Type of Document: Report
Author: N/A, corporate author, presumably Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company
Recipient: N/A
Date: 19790900
Page Count: 46 pages
Site: Brown and Williamson document viewed on Tobacco Documents Online http://tobaccodocuments.org/tdo/
Bates No. 670591534/1579
URL: http://tobaccodocuments.org/tdo/view.cfm?CitID=5949332&ShowImages=yes
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QUOTES
The stated mission of the Institute is to lead and direct the resources of the tobacco industry in promoting an understanding and acceptance of the role of tobacco in our society, and to defend the industry against unwarranted restrictions on its right to engage in normal business activities.
"We do not try to sell cigarettes or promote smoking," said William Kloepfer, Jr., director of public relations. "Our objective is to bring a seemingly closed subject back to the level of controversy in the public's mind."
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