The National Smoker's Alliance (NSA) was formed in 1993 to protest against U.S. anti-smoking legislation. The NSA was a public relations group created and funded by the tobacco industry, which operated nationally from 1994 to 1999 to advocate for adults using tobacco products without vigorous regulation or increased tobacco taxes. An early example of astroturfing, the NSA employed stealth marketing tactics to give the appearance of grassroots opposition to anti-smoking laws.
One of the NSA's members included famed talk show host Morton Downey, Jr.; however, he gave up smoking after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 1996; he died of the disease in 2001.
In 1999 tobacco company Philip Morris announced that it would withdraw funding after the NSA made an ethics complaint about John McCain.