Influencing Science: Ghost Writing

A ‘ghostwriter’ is a someone who writes books, articles, stories, or scientific reports which are officially credited to another person. Historically, the industry has used ghost writing as a way of covertly representing its interests through apparently independent voices, a practice that falls under the banner of third-party techniques. For example:

• In the mid-eighties RJ Reynolds ran a ghost-writing programme, which included scientific research being reviewed by RJ Reynolds’ “panel prior to it being submitted for publication.¹
• In the early nineties, RJ Reynolds discussed using “celebrity” ghost-writers to “target adolescent males and females”, under the umbrella of “Deciding For Yourself” adverts to warn against peer pressure.²

In the mid-nineties, Mother Jones magazine enlisted eleven reporters to spend three months uncovering the tobacco industry’s current tactics. The result was a 40-page special report entitled “Tobacco Strikes Back” which documented how “The tobacco industry is engaged in a massive, largely hidden strategy to turn back a rising tide of government regulations, lawsuits, tax increases, smoking restrictions, and increased public opposition.”³

According to Mother Jones’ then editor “The scope of the tobacco industry’s project is massive … and the battle is being joined on every level – from Washington, where tobacco lobbyists are ghost writing letters for governors to send to the Food and Drug Administration, to mom & pop grocery stores, which are being enlisted as front groups to fight excise taxes and restrictions on the sale of tobacco.”³ For example, a memo from February 1995 from the Tobacco Institute recommended ghost-writing newspaper opinion articles to be signed and submitted by the Taxpayers Association, American labour unions and a group of tobacco wholesalers.⁴

The tactic continued into the next decade:

• In 1997, consultants recommended ghost-writing to British American Tobacco (BAT) as one tactic to try and portray the company as responsible in regards to youth smoking.⁵
• In 2000, the technique was used by Philip Morris as part of its advertising for Chesterfield cigarettes.⁶

Tobacco Tactics resources

• Influencing Science
• RJ Reynolds
• British American Tobacco