Big Food Using the Tobacco Industry Playbook

In 1954, the tobacco industry paid to publish the “Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” in hundreds of U.S. newspapers. It stated that the public’s health was the industry’s concern above all else and promised a variety of good faith changes. The “Frank Statement” was a charade, the first step in a concerted, half-century-long campaign to mislead Americans about the catastrophic effects of smoking, and to avoid public policy that might damage sales. What followed were decades of deceit and actions that cost millions of lives. In the hope that the food industry history will be written differently, these researchers highlight important lessons that can be learned from the tobacco experience.

The processed food industries use tactics similar to those used by tobacco companies to undermine public health interventions. They do this by distorting research findings, co-opting policy makers and health professionals, and lobbying politicians and public officials. In his book about his fight with the tobacco industry, former FDA commissioner David Kessler recounted similar strong-arm tactics used by the meat industry to try to squash nutrition regulations.

The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts on political ads during election campaigns could make things even worse, by working against candidates who support public health positions.

Another similarity between tobacco and food companies is the introduction and heavy marketing of “safer” or “healthier” products. When cigarette sales dropped due to health concerns, the industry introduced “safer” filtered cigarettes that gave health-conscious smokers an alternative to quitting, and sales shot back up. Ironically, the filters originally had asbestos in them.

Less nicotine, less tar, and now with Reduced Carcinogens! And, how could anything be bad for you if it is 100% organic?

Today, leaner pork or eggs with less cholesterol may be the food industry’s low-tar cigarettes. A KFC ad campaign depicted an African American family in which the father was told by the mother that “KFC has 0 grams of trans fat now.” The father, in the presence of children, shouts, “Yeah baby! Whoooo!!” and then begins eating the fried chicken by the bucketful.

Or cereal companies touting all the whole grains in their cocoa puffs brownie crunch. Fruit Loops now provides fiber.

A U.S. district judge overseeing a tobacco industry case put it well: “All too often in the choice between the physical health of consumers and the financial well-being of business, concealment is chosen over disclosure, sales over safety, and money over morality. Who are these persons who knowingly and secretly decide to put the buying public at risk solely for the purpose of making profits, and who believe that illness and death of consumers is an apparent cost of their own prosperity?” Above all, the experience of tobacco shows how powerful profits can be as a motivator, even at the cost of millions of lives and unspeakable suffering.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.

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• D Kessler. (book) A Question of Intent.
• J Wise. Industry has no role in public health policies, concludes analysis. BMJ. 2013 Feb 12;346:f943.
• K D Brownell, K E Warner. The perils of ignoring history: Big Tobacco played dirty and millions died. How similar is Big Food? Milbank Q. 2009 Mar;87(1):259-94.
• W H Wiist. Citizens United, public health, and democracy: the Supreme Court ruling, its implications, and proposed action. Am J Public Health. 2011 Jul;101(7):1172-9.
• Jan. 4, 1954: A Frank Statement To Cigarette Smokers.

• African Americans
• Black Americans
• breakfast cereal
• children
• cholesterol
• eggs
• FDA
• fiber
• industry influence
• junk food
• pork
• processed foods
• smoking
• tobacco