Tobacco companies in the USA launch advertising campaign against smoking
In the USA, tobacco companies have launched their legally mandated anti-smoking advertising campaign. "Smoking kills an average of 1200 Americans - every day", read the very simple ads with black lettering on a white background in the major US Sunday newspapers.
A court has ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Philip Morris USA, Altria and Lorillard to issue a statement on the health consequences of smoking, the companies explain in the complaint.
It goes on to say: "Every year, more people die as a result of smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car accidents and alcohol consumption combined." Various diseases for which smoking is responsible are also listed.
The ruling was handed down eleven years ago. In 2006, Judge Gladys Kessler ruled in a more than 1600-page reasoning that the tobacco companies had broken the law by lying to the public for decades about the health risks of smoking. She ordered a counterstatement - the lawyers on both sides argued about the exact wording for years.
In 2014, they finally agreed that the advertisements must be printed in all major Sunday newspapers, broadcast on prime time television and quoted on the packaging - for one year.
The Cancer Society in the USA, which helped to formulate the ads, called the advertising campaign a "significant victory for public health". The tobacco industry had deliberately made millions of people addicted to their products, with products that they knew would kill half of them prematurely. (SDA)
