IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2014.302226_1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tobacco industry use of personal responsibility rhetoric in public relations and litigation: Disguising freedom to blame as freedom of choice

Author

Listed:
  • Friedman, L.C.
  • Cheyne, A.
  • Givelber, D.
  • Gottlieb, M.A.
  • Daynard, R.A.

Abstract

We examined the tobacco industry's rhetoric to frame personal responsibility arguments. The industry rarely uses the phrase "personal responsibility" explicitly, but rather "freedom of choice." When freedom of choice is used in the context of litigation, the industry means that those who choose to smoke are solely to blame for their injuries. When used in the industry's public relations messages, it grounds its meaning in the concept of liberty and the right to smoke. The courtroom "blame rhetoric" has influenced the industry's larger public relations message to shift responsibility away from the tobacco companies and onto their customers. Understanding the rhetoric and framing that the industry employs is essential to combating this tactic, and we apply this comprehension to other industries that act as disease vectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Friedman, L.C. & Cheyne, A. & Givelber, D. & Gottlieb, M.A. & Daynard, R.A., 2015. "Tobacco industry use of personal responsibility rhetoric in public relations and litigation: Disguising freedom to blame as freedom of choice," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(2), pages 250-260.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.302226_1
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302226
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302226?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Patay, Dori & Schram, Ashley & Friel, Sharon, 2022. "The role of causal ideas in the governance of commercial determinants of health. A qualitative study of tobacco control in the pacific," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    2. Michael S. McLeod & Joshua B. Sears & Gaylen N. Chandler & G. Tyge Payne & Keith H. Brigham, 2022. "Rhetoric, Risk, and Investment: Letting the Numbers Speak for Themselves," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(7), pages 1657-1687, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.302226_1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.