Daily Doc: PM, March 24, 1994: Designer front group - TASSC
Daily Doc: Designer front group - TASSC
Title: Thoughts on TASSC Europe
PM, March 24, 1994
Bates #: 2025492898/2905
February 15, 2000
As we have seen, to circumvent its lack of credibility with the public, policy makers and the media, Philip Morris (PM) leads the industry in the strategy of creating "designer front groups." Forming an artificial third party and then assigning it an "umbrella cause" (one which happens to mesh perfectly with the tobacco industry's) gives the industry the opportunity to have a wholly separate, and far more credible, mouthpiece advance its policies and political desires. Philip Morris (PM) in particular found front groups to be an extremely effective and attractive tool.
We have already heard about PM's group "Associates for Research in Substance Enjoyment," (ARISE) whose "scientists" lumped tobacco use together with innocuous substances like tea and chocolate, put out worldwide press releases saying substance use was good for you and declaring public health advocates to be puritanical, neo-prohibitionist party poopers. After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared secondhand smoke as a Class A Human Carcinogen, however, PM desperately needed a powerful "group" to rise up help discredit EPA's findings. Thus sprang up another PM front group, this time called "The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition," or TASSC. Of course, the chemical, paper, metal, petroleum and other environmentally-dubious industries would also be thrilled to have a group of "committed experts" who would publicly say that scientific warnings against their activities were a bunch of hooey, too. So with the needs clear and a host of willing help-mates waiting in the wings, PM created TASSC through a public relations firm called APCO Associates, a move which helped PM distance itself from the group. After a 2-month, $50,000 feasibility study done hand in hand with PM's law firm of Covington and Burling, APCO began forming TASSC.
APCO did an admirable job of recruiting members for TASSC, too. The "supporters list" (found in another document) includes businesses from the "Family Loompya Seafood Market" and "Pinckneyville Lighting" to sawmills, mining and chemical companies, including W.R. Grace, Co., Amoco, and Dow Chemical.
Today's document reveals the goals of TASSC, and also APCO's enthusiasm for creating a similar group in Europe based on its success in America and elsewhere.
CITATION
Title: Thoughts on TASSC Europe
Type of Document: Memo
From: Tom Hockaday of APCO Associates
To: Matt Winokur, Director, Worldwide Regulatory Affairs for Philip Morris
Date: 19940324
Site: Philip Morris Tobacco Company http://www.pmdocs.com/
Bates No. 2025492898/2905
Page Count: 8
URL: http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2025492898/2905
QUOTES
...We believe that a TASSC-like group can succeed in Europe....TASSC, if created properly, can become a credible commentator to complement or spearhead business objections to unfair public policies....Moreover, by creating a coalition that is dedicated over the long run to speak out on issues relating to scientific integrity, TASSC can become a frequent, consistent source of information for media, conferences, etc. -- in essence, a "watchdog group" that wants scientific facts, not emotional reactions, to determine public policy.
...Specifically, we recommend that a European TASSC be formulated to do the following:
Preempt unilateral action against the industry. Associate anti-industry "scientific" studies with broader questions about government research and regulation. Link tobacco use with other more "politically correct" products. Have non-industry messengers provide reasons for legislators, business executives and media to view policies drawn from unreliable scientific studies with extreme caution.
To achieve those objectives, we encourage a TASSC group in Europe to focus on a few key messages, such as (i) science should never he corrupted to achieve political ends, (ii) economic growth cannot afford to be held hostage to paternalistic, overregulation, and (iii) improving indoor air quality is a laudable goal that will never be accomplished as long as tobacco smoke is the sole focus of regulators.
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