The Frank Statement original draft

The Frank Statement Original Draft

"A FRANK STATEMENT TO CIGARETTE SMOKERS" was the famous tobacco industry advertisement from 1954 that marked the beginning of the tobacco industry's lengthy U.S. misinformation campaign about the health effects of tobacco. Coached by John Hill of the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, tobacco companies published the "Frank Statement" over 400 major newspapers and magazines across the United States as the industry's blanket response to initial public scientific disclosures that linked igarette smoking with lung cancer. This fascinating original draft of The Frank Statement was found among the Ness-Motley collection of documents on Tobacco Documents Online. The draft contains handwritten marginalia and portions of stricken text. One can see that the changes made in the original text of the Frank Statement were carefully designed to protect the industry and keep the truth further at bay.

Following is an example of some of the changes made to the wording of the ad:

"We accept an interest in people's health as a basic responsibility paramount to every other consideration in our business.

We believe the products we make are not injurious to health. Science has no proof to the contrary. [Last sentence lined out.]

''We will never produce and market a product shown to be the cause of any serious human ailment. [''This sentence was lined out.]

We always have and always will cooperate closely with the Governmental authorities [the previous three words were lined out] those whose task it is to safeguard the public health."

The image of the draft can be seen at http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/4720.html#images

SourceWatch resources

 * The Frank Statement
 * Tobacco Industry Research Committee
 * Tobacco industry