| name | Truthยฎ Initiative (orig: American Legacy Foundation) |
|---|---|
| class | PR corporation |
| category | selective public health |
| motivation | funding, hypercompensation |
| funding | $922,385,220 (TMSA reinvestments) |
| association | CTFK |
| purpose | bankrolling, truthwashing |
| bloomberg ties | yes |
| mantra | "Stop Making Sense โ Why Absurdity Works in Marketing" |
| cred | ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ (counting peas would be equally silly here) |
Oh my. Started as a serious counter to the disinformation from corporate/big tobacco; and did originally lean on scientific analyses. Before being coopted by CTFK and devolving into a pure PR/FUD organization from 2016 (post-truth era). Albeit there were signs about 2012/13 already. Some of their campaigns are downright unskilled and cheugy though. There's some forays into other drug use prevention, seemingly as cover, not very substantial.
The name is a bit of an orwellian trope, or borne out of a sedo opportunity. It's unlikely the fallacious/pretentious "Truth" is very convincing outside of political charades. If it wasn't for the more outlandish (and sometimes tasteless) media campaigns, they would get away with their suggestive policy phrasing. Because they very much do show restraint with blatant misinformation; acting as front for CTFK to retain some credibility.
- The Half-Truth Initiative: How an Anti-Smoking Group Lost Its Way
- Truthยฎ Initiative getting causality wrong again
- Truth Initiative tells depressed teens โjust quit vapingโ
- "e-cigarette fact sheet" listed EVALI in 2019; there were also a few tweets IIRC, later tried to walk it back by passivizing the FUD spread
- Anti-vaping zealots find opportunity in the pandemic
- Truth hurts: Truth Initiative fumbles toward irrelevancy
- Mental misinfographic
quick score
This needs more refinement on text detection (e.g. flavour fallacy clearly comes up short here), but as approx. overview on press releases:
(Linked sample/* files aren't expanded in the repository yet. Refer to json dump for now.)
social media cringe
Truthยฎ runs a lot of cringeworthy ads on social media. They're not only unsuitable for deterring use, but often undermine credible messaging:
Truth Anti Smoking/Vaping Ads Are AWFUL
They likely stoked teen curiousity just as much as actual vape companies. It's commonly suspected that this type of scare ads is meant to rile up parents more than it's proclaiming to educate teens.
ToDo
- analysis of 2019 'fact' sheet (with the IQOS ad-like section)โฆ
motivation: hypercompensation
If we were to ignore the financial incentives, then the most plausible explanation would be appeal of the aggressor (โ 3rd-hand stockholm). More specifically TI uses framing approaches comparable to Corp/BigT back in the day.
Never speaking to the tobacco-industry is still a reasonable reaction. But TI/CTFK/BI have progressed it into emulation.