Project B

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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Project B was an alternative ad campaign proposed by the Ruder Finn, Inc. public relations company (date unknown) to counter ads that highlighted the dangers of smoking and the health hazards of secondhand smoke.

Ruder & Finn proposed 60 second television ads in which a man would hold a lit cigarette and state,

You've seen the anti-smoking commercials. Emotional and frightening, they make it appear that there is a clear-cut case against smoking. This simply is not true. Many statistical connections between smoking and health have been cited. The dilemma is that this works both ways. Some figures, for instance, show that light smokers are actually healthier than non-smokers. (PAUSE) Our common sense tells us that emotional charges and counter-charges will not resolve this dilemma.

Another proposed ad would state:

Do smokers have common sense? We in the tobacco industry think they do, and like the millions of reasonable and responsible men and women who smoke, we reject the outrageous charges that are now being made against smoking. They simply are not true.

Title PROJECT "B" AN ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL TO PROJECT "A"
Author RUDER & FINN INTERMEDIA # RUDER & FINN INTERMEDIA
Date 19000000
Type PROPOSAL; REPORT; EXHIBIT
Bates TIMN0081784/1807
Collection Tobacco Institute
Pages 24
URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/bus92f00