Beyond simple disclosure: addressing concerns about industry influence on public health.

The subversive influence of industries peddling tobacco, alcohol, ultraprocessed food and drink, and gambling (known as unhealthy commodity industries) is a recognised threat to public health, including the production of evidence and the implementation of public health policy.1 There has been considerable work in this area trying to expose the influence.1 In this issue of BMJ Global Health, two papers further explore these issues. In the first paper by Knai et al, 2 the authors make a convincing case of using a complex systems approach to conduct research across unhealthy commodity industries; reframing their impact ‘not so much as an aggregation of individual ‘choices’ but more a result of the interactions between diverse actors, factors and their environments’ which ‘are greater than the sum of their parts’, producing change across the system. They argue that such an approach will be more effective in uncovering the diverse and complex ways in which these industries exert influence, resulting in an improved response from the public health community. The second paper by Lacy-Nichols and Marten,3 argue that ‘power has been overlooked in conceptualisations of the Commercial Determinants of Health’ by presenting coercion and appeasement as two broad ways in which industry uses power to influence public health policy. Coercion can be antagonistic (and so, more visible)—for example, aggressive lobbying and campaigns against policies. However, appeasement takes a more subtle approach to neutralise opposition by establishing partnerships between industry and public health. Such appeasement can undermine the integrity of the researchers, allow for the science to be questioned and can fracture public …