Key Points: Draws on thousands of documents, audio and video clips from the tobacco industry document archives as well as trial testimony. Resources include The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, Tobacco Documents Online, the tobacco industry trial testimony collection (DATTA), as well as the archive of the Tobacco Institute.

Results: Since the 1950s the efforts by tobacco industry companies and their joint organizations can be best summarized by the industry itself: “To create doubt about the health effects of smoking without denying them.” Tapes, documents and testimony from the tobacco industry files illustrate the common messages created by the industry, e.g., “They may be harmful, they may not”, “Smoking is a mature and adult activity”, gummy-bears, applesauce and more. Lawyer controlled science and attacks on the public health community in order to create doubt. What role did the public health play? This presentation's content will be based on these key issues among many others.

Learning Objectives: Use some of the most “outrageous” statements and actions of the tobacco industry as educational and advocacy tools. Utilize industry document collections for tobacco industry research and program development.

Benefits: This presentation is a telling story of how the tobacco industry framed the smoking and health issues for nearly five decades. Future generations need to learn from the mistakes of the past. There is no better place to start than seeing how the tobacco industry pulled the wool over our collective eyes as the body count mounted.