Friday, 19 June 2020

Corrupted tobacco economists network, Part 34: promo-tours all over the USA

Overview of previous posts here

Promo-tours all over the USA

The Ogilvy and Mather promotion plan from previous blogpost effectively was executed and Robert D. Tollison and Richard E. Wagner started making media trips to promote Smoking and the State: Social costs, rent seeking, and public policy, just as the strategy dictated.

In 1992, the industry planned a new media tour to promote the book The Economics of Smoking. The document looks back on the 1988/1989 media tour

Assuming the economists earned at least $3,000 per tour stop (see appendix, to be published at the end of the blogseries), the authors must have earned well over $100,000 (on top of the $20,000 for writing the book).

PR-firm Ogilvy and Mather helped Tollison, giving him advice on how to communicate with the press
As always, the industry was evaluating the economists
The media tour results pleased the industry as the authors spoke with lots of media

In 1995, Tollison and Wagner participated in another media tour, though it is not clear from the LTDL which book they presented. The Economics of Smoking dates from 1992, so there may be a missing publication.  It is not clear also why Tollison and Wagner received more media training from PR-firm Fleishman-Hillard in 1991

The LTDL has some examples of the interviews, showing Tollison’s one sided argumentation


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