It’s Toasted

4 hours ago

American Tobacco's 1917 'It's Toasted' campaign for Lucky Strike reframed a common industrial process as a unique benefit to distract from health risks, setting a precedent for PR strategies.
Meta uses a similar 'It's Toasted' strategy by emphasizing safety investments (like content moderation and parental tools) to shift focus from addictive product designs linked to mental health harms.
Social media design features (infinite scroll, algorithmic feeds) contribute to compulsive use and mental health issues, with internal research at Meta allegedly not fully disclosed, raising accountability concerns.
Parallels exist between tobacco and social media: both involve widespread use, later questioned long-term harms, corporate knowledge of risks, and regulatory responses like bans (e.g., Australia under 16) and warning labels.
Lawsuits against Meta and Google (e.g., Kaley's case) highlight legal challenges over addictive designs, while Zuckerberg's apologies and safety pledges mirror distraction tactics rather than proactive redesigns.
Meta could redesign platforms to reduce harm (e.g., removing infinite scroll, prioritizing chronological feeds, hiding metrics), but instead focuses on optional safety features, shifting responsibility to users.
Meta's PR approach risks aligning it with tobacco industry tactics, prompting legislative actions (lawsuits, bans, warnings), urging a shift toward meaningful design changes for product safety.

Hasty Briefsbeta