Publicizing the Effect of Nicotine on Aggressive Behavior

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

This 1975 Philip Morris memo discusses how the company could possibly publicize the apparent results of a scientific experiment and accompanying video that showed nicotine reduced a cat's appetite for mice. It is unclear if these experiments were done in-house or externally.

Key quotes

My instinctive reaction to the movie of the cat whose appetite for mice is blocked by nicotine is that we should arrange as promptly as possible a showing on national television.... ....The film could be tested "as is" and also with an accompanying narrative which spells out its implications for the world of people. There might be several versions of such an accompanying script. Perhaps the most hard-hitting claim would be to come right out and say that the Indians kew what they were talking about when they spoke of the "peace pipe" and that we believed Leonid Brezhnev, cigarette smoker, was somewhat less likely to push his side's atomic war button than a Leonid Breshnev whose cigarettes had been taken away from him.

Title Publicizing the Effect of Nicotine on Aggressive Behavior
Person Authors Jetson E. Lincoln
Document Date 19750417 (April 17, 1975)
Document Type Memorandum
Bates Number 1005136045
Collection Philip Morris
Pages 1 URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/del28e00[Category:Science]]