Tobacco Ads

(Washington) Tobacco companies spent a massive $160.5 million on marketing in Arkansas in 2005, according to a report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Most of the money was spent on marketing in retail stores, believed to be effective at encouraging kids to smoke. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids believes that shows the need for Congress to pass pending legislation granting authority over tobacco products, including a crack down on tobacco marketing and sales to kids. An FTC report showed that the tobacco companies have nearly doubled their marketing expenditures nationwide since the 1998 state tobacco settlement, which was supposed to curtail tobacco marketing. In 2005, the latest year in the report, the tobacco companies spent $13.4 billion on marketing nationwide - $36.6 million a day. In 1998, the tobacco companies spent $6.9 billion on marketing. The FTC report showed that more than 90 percent of cigarette marketing is now spent in convenience stores and other retail stores on colorful advertising and gifts with purchase and on price discounts that make tobacco products more affordable to kids. FDA legislation before Congress would limit tobacco advertising in stores and in magazines with significant teen readership to black-and-white text only, eliminating the colorful, youth-oriented images that depict smoking as cool and glamorous. The legislation would also grant the FDA authority to require that tobacco companies disclose the contents of tobacco products and remove or reduce harmful ingredients. (Copyright 2007 Newsroom Solutions, LLC)