Fake News: Disinformation, Deception, and Magical Thinking Over Time

Cigarettes and Fake News Conclusion

The tobacco industry in the United States has had a long and successful history of influencing public perception of cigarettes, using both overt and covert methods. Advertising isn't what we would consider fake news, but advertising used wisely can play on our attitudes in ways we are not always conscious of. The industry used it to great effect to help reinforce an attitude already present in some women that cigarette smoking was a way to signal independence, equality with men and modernity. The industry effectively exploited this impulse and sold cigarettes as a social statement for women to make.

Attempts to sell are sometimes more hidden. Early pioneers in the industry used public relation stunts to help enforce this view of smoking and also to make smoking in public by women an acceptable practice. Seemingly real public events can actually be easily manufactured by those seeking to influence the public. The influential cigarette advertiser Edward Bernays believed subtle forms of marketing, not obvious advertising, was more effective because in it people have the illusion that they are freely deciding to do something.

Beyond advertising and publicity stunts, they used movies and television to create a sense of glamour around smoking. They paid to put cigarettes in movies and put movie stars on the payroll to publicly smoke a particular brand of cigarette. In people's minds this helped make cigarettes synonymous with wealth and celebrity.  While some rules have been put in place to discourage the types of paid product cigarettes are still a common sight in movies and streaming content. 

All of these efforts were to sell a legal product. Truly people did not need to be forced to smoke, many people saw it as a pleasurable activity. But when scientific evidence began to overwhelmingly show a link between smoking and cancer, tobacco industry efforts took a much more sinister turn. In the face of falling sales, executives decided to work together to fight the acceptance of the science in the public. They did it pretty successfully for 40 years. 

When science raises concerns that might hurt sales, science can effectively be attacked by raising doubt: using the views of a few scientists to make it look as if there is controversy, when really there is broad scientific consensus. 
 

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