title: 'To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts': the tobacco industry and the Tea Party.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Tea Party, which gained prominence in the USA in 2009, advocates limited government and low taxes. Tea Party organisations, particularly Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, oppose smoke-free laws and tobacco taxes.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, the Wayback Machine, Google, LexisNexis, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) to examine the tobacco companies' connections to the Tea Party.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Starting in the 1980s, tobacco companies worked to create the appearance of broad opposition to tobacco control policies by attempting to create a grassroots smokers' rights movement. Simultaneously, they funded and worked through third-party groups, such as Citizens for a Sound Economy, the predecessor of AFP and FreedomWorks, to accomplish their economic and political agenda. There has been continuity of some key players, strategies and messages from these groups to Tea Party organisations. As of 2012, the Tea Party was beginning to spread internationally.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Rather than being a purely grassroots movement that spontaneously developed in 2009, the Tea Party has developed over time, in part through decades of work by the tobacco industry and other corporate interests. It is important for tobacco control advocates in the USA and internationally, to anticipate and counter Tea Party opposition to tobacco control policies and ensure that policymakers, the media and the public understand the longstanding connection between the tobacco industry, the Tea Party and its associated organisations.
authors: Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors: Amanda
authors: A
authors: Fallin
authors: Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors: Rachel
authors: R
authors: Grana
authors: Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors: Stanton A
authors: SA
authors: Glantz
mesh_terms: D003254:Consumer Advocacy; D006801:Humans; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D011057:Politics; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D019460:Tobacco Industry / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution
keywords: Advocacy; Public Policy; Social Marketing; Tobacco Industry; Tobacco Industry Documents
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