Hacks, Flacks, and Counter-Attacks: Cigarette Advertising, Sponsored Research, and Controversies

The tobacco industry promotes friendly “experts” and uses public relations tactics to produce uncertainty around research results that threaten it. This inhibits public policies responsive to these research findings. These tactics, long used against medical science, are now being used to counter the studies challenging to the myth that cigarette advertising is of no import. The numerous weaknesses of the industry-advanced argument are discussed, drawing particularly on the literature of consumer behavior, marketing, and advertising. The vast preponderance of evidence indicates that cigarette advertising plays a meaningful role in influencing the perceptions, attitudes, and smoking behavior of youth. Denials of these effects, without brand new and compelling evidence, are highly suspect.