A type of damage control in industry public relations or political lobbying, whereby the public is "inoculated" against the inevitable release of information which is potentially threatening to an industry's product or reputation, or to a political representative, movement or media figure. The critical information may be preemptively recast (spun) as something positive; and/or a source of the threatening information may be subjected to negative allegations to reduce source credibility and confound public perceptions of damaging disclosures.
In the wake of class action injury suits, drug company X was driven to a spinoculation campaign as it faced the release of its own internal research data demonstrating that its blockbuster drug Y induced a pathological proliferation of neurons known to precede mass brain cell death, increasing the likelihood of eventual dementia in a large percentage of patients. In cooperation with company public relations executives, company X quickly funded a series of spinoculating studies to invert public scrutiny, claiming that drug Y produced "neurogenerative" effects, replicating the production of healthy brain cells, inferring that, rather than causing brain damage, drug Y "makes people smarter".
When drug company X was alerted that a medical expert would soon make media appearances questioning the safety of drug Y, the company quickly planted stories in the press alleging misconduct on the part of the critic in order to spinoculate the public against inevitable alarm over drug risks.
When drug company X was alerted that a medical expert would soon make media appearances questioning the safety of drug Y, the company quickly planted stories in the press alleging misconduct on the part of the critic in order to spinoculate the public against inevitable alarm over drug risks.
by 4Gatos October 8, 2011