Big Tobacco – the tangled web they weave and the practice to deceive
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It was 1980, but this scene has been going on in “smoke filled rooms” since the early 20th century. Big Tobacco’s Kloepfer and Klopnick were hand wringing; possibly burning the candle late into the evening. They were aghast that the National Institute of Drug Abuse wanted to have “addictive” added to cigarette warnings. Imagine that, Big Tobacco does not believe cigarette smoking was addictive; or do they; or do they now, but they did not think so then; or they thought so then, but they don’t think so now; or cigarettes are addictive, but not for smokers who sue Big Tobacco? So many tales to remember, so many versions of the same line of PR. How can they remember what they knew and when they knew it?
They remember because they write; they exist because they create stories; they are perception. Kloepfer/ Klopnick's hand wringing resulted in Kloepfer writing to Knopick about this scandalous move to add “addictive” to warning labels. In the memo, Kloepfer tells Klopnick that: “Shook Hardy (Big Tobacco’s Goliath Law Firm) reminds us, I’m told, that the entire matter of addiction is the most potent weapon a prosecuting attorney (think plaintiffs attorney here) can have in a lung cancer/cigarette case. We can’t defend continued smoking as a ‘free choice’ if the person was ‘addicted’ (emphasis added).”
So, Big Tobacco is in a real tight spot here. They can not concede that cigarettes addict smokers; because their lawyers are worried they can not then argue in defending a lawsuit that the smoker had “free choice”. Poor Big Tobacco; so sad.
If cigarettes were addictive, then Big Tobacco hooked generations on smoking. That means that Big Tobacco hooked our kids during WWII; they convinced Americans that smoking was a good way to diet; that cigarettes made you more manly; that cigarettes made you more feminine; that cigarettes were good for you. That means that Big Tobacco spewed TV ads, movie ads, magazine ads; all that encouraged, motivated young people from the a 1930’s, ‘40’s, ‘50’s, etc to begin using a substance they knew would hopelessly addict them. If they encouraged use of a drug they spun as a condiment or an after dinner treat, well, that would have been very wrong on their part, right?
So, the reason Big Tobacco can not admit that their cigarettes hopelessly addicted many people; they can not admit that they lied or deceived the public; they can not fess up to their control of a perception manipulation of monumental proportions; it is all because their Goliath lawyers told them never to admit cigarettes are horribly addictive.