The Advancement of Sound Science Center (TASSC), formerly The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, was an industry-funded lobby group and crisis management vehicle, and was created in 1993 by Phillip Morris and APCO in response to a 1992 United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report which identified secondhand smoke as a "confirmed" human carcinogen. TASSC's stated objectives were to: (1) discredit the EPA report; (2) fight anti-smoking legislation; and (3) pro-actively pass legislation favourable to the tobacco industry.
Philip Morris hired APCO Worldwide, a communications consultancy with expertise in crisis management, handling sensitive political issues, lobbying, media relations, coalition building, opinion research, market entry, corporate social responsibility, and online communication. APCO's designed strategies for TASSC aimed at establishing TASSC as "a credible source for reporters when questioning the validity of scientific studies" and to "Encourage the public to question – from the grassroots up – the validity of scientific studies".
Goals and strategies
The PR firm known as APCO began life as a real-estate investment subsidiary for the legal partners in the law-firm Arnold & Porters. It was originally identified as A&P Co, which was converted into a specialist PR front to service Philip Morris, the major client of Arnold & Porters who serviced the cigarette company at the boardroom level. A&P then hired Margery Kraus to run the new company, and it expanded rapidly through its tobacco-funded activities, successively becoming APCo, APCO, then APCO & Associates, and finally APCO Worldwide.
Philip Morris and APCO
Tobacco document archives include a section on Philip Morris which is entitled: Goals and objectives: The overall goals of the media plan are to: raise the awareness level of the use of unsound science in public policy decision making among target audiences; educate publics on the impact of this issue; and lay the groundwork and provide an environment for a successful grassroots mobilization effort to assist (the Tobacco Company) Philip Morris with its issues nationally and in target states.
The objectives of the media plan are to: Establish TASSC as a credible source for reporters when questioning the validity of scientific studies. Encourage the public to question-from the grassroots up-the validity of scientific studies. Mobilize support for TASSC through alliances with other organizations and third-party allies. Develop materials, including news article reprints, that can be to TASSC audiences. Increase membership in and funding of TASSC. Publicize and refine TASSC messages on an ongoing basis."
TASSC's original goal was to become a "publicly known, respected and highly visible organization" within months of its creation by using an "integrated program that combines a strategic, comprehensive media relations program.
The strategies developed by APCO Worldwide (specifically for Philip Morris) and applied through The Advancement of Sound Science Center (TASSC), were highly effective and continue to be successfully used today by many organisations seeking to counter published peer-reviewed mainstream scientific research which might be used in formulating public policies. APCO Worldwide focused on unsettling the general public's confidence in the validity of mainstream scientific research in a series of well-planned public education campaigns. They strategically targeted mainstream media with junk-science claims about scientific reports (for example, claims about health and environmental risks that required regulatory policies).
Astroturfing
This methodology is now called astroturfing -- generally uses so-called "think-tanks", and it works through coordinated local activism, "information sharing" and the strategic creation by APCO and its associates of seeded grassroots organizations. Under APCO's advice, TASSC developed local coalitions, making them appear to be indigenous grass roots organizations, and used them to influence media, legislators, and the public, and in some cases, to recruit scientists and researchers to support Philip Morris's pro-smoking position. TASSC promoted itself as "a not-for-profit coalition advocating the use of sound science in public policy decision making."
TASSC's links to the tobacco industry remained hidden for decades: APCO's strategy was for TASSC to appear to be an independent national grassroots coalition. To conceal this relationship, TASSC broadened the focus to question the validity of other scientific concerns, notably global warming.