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Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation attendees will be able to:
- Understand how the tobacco industry used anthropologists, sociologists, social psychologists and demographers to understand the social and cultural dynamics of smoker behavior. Identify critical tobacco industry documents that illustrate industry strategies that developed from social science research.
Key Points: In January 1964, shortly after the publication of the Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, Philip Morris president George Weismann recommended to company C.E.O. Joseph Cullman that it was necessary for Philip Morris to provide smokers a “psychological crutch and self-rationale to continue smoking.” Weismann’s comment points to a body of then secret tobacco industry internal research that has gotten relatively little attention from tobacco control scholars: A massive program of social science research intended to understand smoking initiation among youth and smoker perceptions of health risks. This paper draws upon previously secret tobacco industry documents to explore this research effort, examining the research methods the industry employed, the scientists it retained, and showing how this research informed broader indusry strategies to oppose tobacco control policies. The paper concludes that this research shaped the industry's marketing and promotion strategies, as well as its lobbying and activism against smoking restrictions. Such research continues to shape US and international tobacco manufacturers behavior. Thus, knowlege of how the industry learned about smoker behavior can inform contemporary tobacco control policy
Educational Experience: Participants will hear a presentation and see industry documents supporting the analysis and conclusions.
Benefits: Participants will understand internal industry strategy-making in the US and abroad, see a demonstration of document-based tobacco control research, and learn how historical internal documents can support contemporary tobacco control activism.