MB Comment: Vaccine manufacturers use front groups to create the appearance of grass-roots support for vaccination. It’s a standard PR technique. “The best PR ends up looking like news,” bragged one public relations executive. “You never know when a PR agency is being effective; you’ll just find your views slowly shifting.” …
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Front Groups: A History
A front group is an example of what is known in the PR trade as the “third party technique.” The idea behind the term is that when one person (the “first party”) wants to persuade someone else (the “second party”) to believe or do something that benefits the first party, it helps if the message comes from a seemingly disinterested, independent source. As Daniel Edelman, the founder of Edelman PR Worldwide, has stated, “A third party endorsement can position a new brand so that it’s poised for great success or, conversely, can blunt a serious problem before it gets out of hand and proves disastrous for a particular product or for a company overall.” …
Front groups constitute an attempt to manufacture a third party, creating the appearance of independence while in fact the so-called independent voice is actually beholden to some hidden or rarely-mentioned sponsor …
“The public is completely convinced that when you speak as an industry, you are speaking out of nothing but self-interest. The pro-industry citizen activist group is the answer to these problems. It can be an effective and convincing advocate for your industry. It can utilize powerful archetypes such as the sanctity of the family, the virtue of the close-knit community, the natural wisdom of the rural dweller… . And it can turn the public against your enemies… . I think you’ll find it one of your wisest investments over time.”
Portions of this article are adapted from Trust Us, We’re Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future, by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.
