How They Made Us Doubt Everything

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How They Made Us Doubt Everything: 2. ‘Doubt  is our product'

2. ‘Doubt  is our product'

BBC Radio 4 - How They Made Us Doubt Everything, 2. ‘Doubt  is our product'

In 1953 PR and tobacco execs draw up a plan to fight claims that smoking causes cancer.

‘We do not believe the industry should indulge in any flashy or spectacular ballyhoo’. In 1953  PR and tobacco execs draw up a playbook  to fight claims that smoking causes cancer.

At a secret meeting, a plan is drawn up to fight claims that smoking causes cancer.  In 1953, the tobacco industry was hit by a major storm. ‘Salesmen in the industry are frantically alarmed and the decline in tobacco stocks on the stock exchange market has caused grave concern’, claimed an internal memo. A study linking smoking to cancer was getting a lot of attention. We’ll take you to the meeting where the PR response was planned. It’s an important meeting. The strategy developed there turned out to be so effective, it would be used again and again and again. 

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.   
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything. 


Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

From smoking and cancer to climate change, this is the story of how to manufacture doubt.

How some of the world's most powerful interests made us doubt the connection between smoking and cancer, and then how the same tactics were used to make us doubt climate change.

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How They Made Us Doubt Everything

2. ‘Doubt is our product'

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