Smokers’ rights groups and corporate viral political activity
Author(s)
Anna Gilmore and Heide Weishaar
Presenter(s)
Gary Fooks Research Fellow in Public Health, Department for Health, University of Bath
Abstract
Tobacco control in the UK has met with growing opposition from neoliberal think tanks and campaign groups who are calling for further tobacco control measures to be dropped and for existing restrictions on public smoking to be amended. This study examines the links between these groups, the industry funded smokers’ rights group FOREST and tobacco manufacturers and explores the risk that this phenomenon poses to public health.
Using a snowball sampling strategy, we collected documentary data from tobacco industry document archives and assembled them into a chronologically organised case study to explore FOREST’s campaign strategy. FOREST’s links with neoliberal organisations were explored using social network analysis.
Although FOREST consistently emphasises its formal independence from tobacco manufacturers, industry documents and other secondary data indicate the relatively strong influence tobacco manufacturers exercise over its work and strategy.
The close and overlapping relationships between FOREST and neoliberal organisations illustrate FOREST’s long term strategy of building support for its campaign against further tobacco regulation by linking smokers’ rights to the political concerns of these organisations. FOREST’s strategy is similar to viral marketing in that it uses a pre-existing social network to increase awareness of its campaign.
Source of funding: Cancer Research Institute at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Cancer Research UK.
Declaration of interest: None of the authors have any conflicts of interest.
