Tobacco firms adopt tactics of ‘Dr Evil’ in battle against tougher regulation

Washington lobbyist Richard Berman
CREDITS: THE GUARDIAN

Britain’s leading cigarette manufacturers are attempting to open a new front in their fight against tougher regulation.

Tobacco companies are backing a new organisation that launches this week to push the message that drinkers and fast food fans will be the next targets of health campaigners if smokers’ freedoms are not respected.

Action on Consumer Choice (ACC) is closely modelled on the Centre for Consumer Freedom (CCF) in the US, a hugely powerful organisation funded by tobacco firms and fast food chains that was the brainchild of Richard Berman, one of Washington’s most successful – and notorious – lobbyists. Berman has argued against an initiative to lower the blood alcohol content limit for US drivers, claiming that stricter limits would punish those who drink responsibly. His various lobbying efforts have earned him the sobriquet “Dr Evil”.

“His principal strategy appears to be: destroy your opponent’s credibility before they destroy yours,” Simon Clark of Freedom of the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (Forest), the tobacco-funded body behind the ACC, notes on his blog announcing the soft launch of the ACC, crediting Berman as its inspiration. “Consumers who believe in choice and personal responsibility must have a voice,” Clark continues. “With a few tweaks for a UK audience, I can’t think of a better model than Rick Berman’s Centre for Consumer Freedom.”

Berman found himself in the New York Times last week after a speech he gave to the oil and gas industry was secretly recorded and leaked to the paper. According to the NYT, Berman told leading oil and gas executives that they must be “prepared to employ tactics like digging up embarrassing tidbits about environmentalists and liberal celebrities”. He continued: “Think of this as an endless war. And you have to budget for it.”

“I’m a great fan of his,” Clark told the Observer. “If we were half as successful as Rick Berman, then I would be very happy.” Like the CCF, its UK counterpart will seek to build a broad consensus of interests. “We want to reach out to non-smokers,” Clark said. “We want to get across to them the argument that, if the rights of smokers are ignored, then something they enjoy, like a drink or fatty food, will be the next thing to be targeted with excessive regulation.”

Health campaigners have attacked the new campaign group. “Action on Consumer Choice appears to be the latest front group set up by the tobacco industry to confuse the public,” said Professor Anna Gilmore of the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, which has started monitoring the ACC’s activities.

Clark denied the suggestion that the ACC’s creation was a sign that the tobacco lobby recognised it was losing the regulation battle. “We know there is support out there for our general message, which is about protecting freedom of choice and defending personal responsibility.” He confirmed that initial seed money for the ACC will come from the tobacco industry, but said he hoped other industries would become involved in time.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said she doubted whether the ACC would be able to attract anything other than tobacco companies. “It would be crazy for food or drinks companies to jump into bed with the tobacco industry. It would wreck their reputations and completely undermine any arguments they want to make against future regulation.” ...TheGuardian