Created on Sunday, 19 September 2010 12:15
Con·spir·a·cy
n. pl. con·spir·a·cies
1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2. A group of conspirators.
3. Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design
‘The Tobacco Conspiracy’ describes the history of the tobacco industry’s lies and scams. From the US in 1953 to Africa today, the controversy between individual responsibility and corporate greed is portrayed in a lucid, undaunted manner. From scientific frauds to working with organized crime, the tobacco companies’ hidden agenda is shown more clearly than ever in this documentary. More than three years of investigating all over the world allowed Nadia Collot to decipher the attitudes of an industry that, in spite of many prevention campaigns, still expands its power at the cost of public health. Three aspects of industry behavior are studied:
1. Scientific subversion: proof of the manipulation of scientific evidence and buying out of scientists, to keep the controversy over the health issues related to smoking and environmental tobacco smoke under control.
2. Ideological subversion: whether it be through clever and disguised product placements on TV, creating its own biased health messages, implementing subtle and ingenious marketing tactics or using political lobbying maneuvers, the tobacco industry has gone to unbelievable lengths to do what it says it never would.
3. Economic strategies: infiltrating closed-market countries, trying to reach the young and the poor and smuggling are just some of the ways the industry has chosen to organize its international growth.
