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TI's strategy to fight social cost theory 

In the late 1970s, health authorities began calculating how much tobacco use costs society in lost productivity, increased health care costs, absenteeism, etc. This was called the "social costs" theory and it was used sucessfully to advocate for effective tobacco control measures. This internal tobacco industry speech about the social costs of smoking was given in May of 1979, apparently before members of ICOSI (the International Committee on Smoking Issues, a group which consisted of the major tobacco manufacturers worldwide, and which was created to deal with the global decline in social acceptability of smoking). The speech was prepared by George Berman, who was affiliated with Philip Morris and the Tobacco Institute. In 1979, a George Berman (whose signature is very similar to that on Philip Morris documents) was listed as President of Devon Management Resources, Inc., which apparently acted as a consultant to Philip Morris. In the speech, Berman explains the industry's strategy of avoiding a discussion of the social costs of smoking by outlining a four-pronged attack on the theory itself. Berman states,

"It would be pointless to just dispute these arguments with similar data, to attack their numbers with our numbers. Instead, our strategy is to attack the concepts of social cost analysis...If we can undermine the concepts, then we do not have to enter into public debate over specific numbers. . . "Our attack consists of four major themes: 1. These social cost concepts are bad economics. 2. They do not fit into a philosophy of personal freedom and civil liberty. 3. Smoking benefits society and its members in many complex ways. 4. Anti-smoking programs and groups are harmful to our society."

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