Defunct smokers' rights advocacy group in the United States
The National Smokers Alliance (NSA) was an organization created and funded by the PR firm
Burson-Marsteller, hired by
Phillip Morris, in 1993 to protest against
anti-smoking legislation in the United States.[1] The NSA was a public relations group created and funded by the
tobacco industry, which operated nationally from 1994 to 1999 to advocate for adults using tobacco products without vigorous regulation or increased tobacco taxes.[2] An early example of
astroturfing, the NSA employed
stealth marketing tactics to give the appearance of
grassroots opposition to anti-smoking laws.[3][4]
One of the NSA's members included famed talk show host
Morton Downey Jr.;[5] however, he gave up smoking after being diagnosed with
lung cancer in 1996 (and in doing so reversed his smoking stance to an anti-smoking one); he died of the disease in 2001.[6]
In 1999 tobacco company
Philip Morris announced that it would withdraw funding after the NSA made an ethics complaint about
John McCain.[7]
References
^Soule, Sarah A. "Social Movements and Markets, Industries, and Firms". Organization Studies. 33 (12): 1715–1733.
doi:
10.1177/0170840612464610.