Strange bedfellows: the history of collaboration between the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and the tobacco industry

Ritch, Wendy A; Begay, Michael E.

doi:10.2105/ajph.91.4.598

Cited by 41 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…In some countries, this perception was reinforced by political contributions to elected representatives, and considerable investment in traditional forms of corporate political activity aimed, amongst other things, at building strategic alliances with other social actors (Dearlove et al 2002; Ritch and Begay 2001), covertly funding and generally influencing scientific research (see, for example, Grüning, et al 2006; Hardell et al 2007), and shaping the underlying political ideas upon which the tobacco control agenda was set (Cohen et al 2000). The result, in many countries, was a largely self-regulatory approach to tobacco control (Nathanson 2005).…”

Section: Stage One: Declining Political Authority Conceived By Corpormentioning

confidence: 99%

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

et al. 2012

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Since scholarly interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily focused on the synergies between social and economic performance, our understanding of how (and the conditions under which) companies use CSR to produce policy outcomes that work against public welfare has remained comparatively under-developed. In particular, little is known about how corporate decision-makers privately reconcile the conflicts between public and private interests, even though this is likely to be relevant to understanding the limitations of CSR as a means of aligning business activity with the broader public interest. This study addresses this issue using internal tobacco industry documents to explore British-American Tobacco’s (BAT) thinking on CSR and its effects on the company’s CSR Programme. The article presents a three-stage model of CSR development, based on Sykes and Matza’s theory of techniques of neutralization, which links together: how BAT managers made sense of the company’s declining political authority in the mid-1990s; how they subsequently justified the use of CSR as a tool of stakeholder management aimed at diffusing the political impact of public health advocates by breaking up political constituencies working towards evidence-based tobacco regulation; and how CSR works ideologically to shape stakeholders’ perceptions of the relative merits of competing approaches to tobacco control. Our analysis has three implications for research and practice. First, it underlines the importance of approaching corporate managers’ public comments on CSR critically and situating them in their economic, political and historical contexts. Second, it illustrates the importance of focusing on the political aims and effects of CSR. Third, by showing how CSR practices are used to stymie evidence-based government regulation, the article underlines the importance of highlighting and developing matrices to assess the negative social impacts of CSR.

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Section: Stage One: Declining Political Authority Conceived By Corpormentioning

confidence: 99%

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

et al. 2012

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“…In print articles, direct quotes are more influential on readers’ impressions of issues than paraphrased quotes [ 37 ]; thus, we coded sources in news items who were directly quoted. Government officials (including elected officials and heads of public health departments) and tobacco control advocates, while not quoted regularly, were quoted more often than representatives of the tobacco industry and its allies, restaurant and bar associations (Table 2 ) [ 38 , 39 ]. Elected officials were often quoted debating the pros and cons of legislation mandating smokefree restaurants or bars.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Tired of watching customers walk out the door because of the smoke”: a content analysis of media coverage of voluntarily smokefree restaurants and bars

et al. 2015

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BackgroundNews media are key sources of information regarding tobacco issues, and help set the tobacco control policy agenda. We examined US news coverage of voluntarily smokefree restaurants and bars in locales without mandatory policies to understand how such initiatives are perceived.MethodsWe searched three online media databases (Access World News, Lexis Nexis, and Proquest) for all news items, including opinion pieces, published from 1995 to 2011. We coded retrieved items quantitatively, analyzing the volume, type, provenance, prominence, and content of news coverage.ResultsWe found 986 news items, most published in local newspapers. News items conveyed unambiguous support for voluntarily smokefree establishments, regardless of venue. Mandatory policies were also frequently mentioned, and portrayed positively or neutrally. Restaurant items were more likely to mention health-related benefits of going smokefree, with bar items more likely to mention business-related benefits.ConclusionVoluntary smokefree rules in bars and restaurants are regarded by news media as reasonable responses to health and business-based concerns about worker and customer exposure to secondhand smoke. As efforts continue to enact comprehensive smokefree policies to protect all in such venues, the media are likely to be supportive partners in the advocacy process, helping to generate public and policymaker support.

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“…This is not necessarily a novel political strategy. As noted above, large businesses, including alcohol and tobacco companies, have often allied themselves with groups that are more likely to elicit public sympathy [ 121 – 123 ]. How the alcohol industry is understood, as well as how alcohol itself is understood by the public and policy actors is important to distinguish.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distilling the distillers: examining the political activities of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States

Lesch

McCambridge

2023

Global Health

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Background Understanding of the alcohol industry’s means of influencing public policy is increasingly well established. Less is known, however, about the specific organisations that lead the political strategies of the alcohol industry. To fill this gap, this paper explores the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), a key trade association in the United States (US), which also operates internationally. Methods This study explores how DISCUS is organised and the main political activities it pursues to advance its policy interests. The study triangulates data from several sources, including DISCUS documents, as well as federal lobbying and election expenditure data. Results This study demonstrates that DISCUS is a key political actor in the US and global alcohol policymaking context. There are identifiable strategies used by DISCUS to shape alcohol policy debates, including framing and lobbying. We also find key synergies between these strategies and identify their operation at varying levels of policy decision-making. Conclusions Generating more secure inferences about the nature of the alcohol industry’s efforts to advance its interests, and with what success and at what cost, requires researchers to investigate other trade associations in different contexts, and use other data sources.

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Strange bedfellows: the history of collaboration between the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and the tobacco industry

Cited by 41 publications

References 1 publication

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

“Tired of watching customers walk out the door because of the smoke”: a content analysis of media coverage of voluntarily smokefree restaurants and bars

Distilling the distillers: examining the political activities of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States

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