Producing Good Publicity

The tobacco industry used CTR to create a public image as a benevolent funder of science. In "Cigarette Smoking and Health: What Are the Facts?" TIRC-funded research is touted as contributing "to the fund of knowledge about lung cancer and other diseases" {1903.02, p. 4}. The document also boasts that "300 papers have been published in medical and scientific journals and societies which credit TIRC for support in whole or part" {1903.02, p. 4}.

A "Report to CTR Annual Meeting," dated January 31, 1975, describes 1974 as a "good year" for CTR because the work of its grantees was covered favorably in the lay press {1908.01}. The report specifically mentions that a paper published by Carl Seltzer (a special projects researcher, discussed earlier in this chapter) on the effect of smoking in lowering blood pressure "was reported on the front page of the Chicago Daily News and moved on CDN [Chicago Daily News] newswire" {1908.01}. The report also describes CTR's reaction when it did not receive credit for its sponsored research:

A CTR grantee last month had an article in an AMA journal that did not credit CTR for support. The article was brought to the attention of certain writers who were told of CTR's sponsorship. There was some followup on my part [the unnamed person who wrote the memo] and the science writer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviewed the scientist and wrote a nice piece. {1908.01}