How They Made Us Doubt Everything

The Tobacco Playbook: 5. Big Oil's Big Group

As the world’s scientists agree on man-made climate change, the oil companies come together to form their own coalition. They aren’t just focused on the science, though. From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change. With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything. Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane

From smoking and cancer to climate change, this is the story of how to manufacture doubt. Investigating the industry response to claims there could be asbestos in make-up, and the tactics that could be used to cast doubt over the science and create controversy.