Attorney General Backing ‘Truth’ In Tobacco Ads

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is praising a significant court decision upholding the cutting edge “truth” youth anti-smoking advertising campaign against a legal challenge by Lorillard Tobacco Company.

“This decision upholds our ‘truth’ campaign against smoking — telling the unfiltered facts about tobacco-related death and disease — and talking directly to children who remain tobacco’s biggest target,” Mr Blumenthal said. “The tobacco industry again sought to suppress and stifle the truth about tobacco, but Big Tobacco is finally learning what millions of cancer victims already know: the truth hurts.

“This campaign presents harsh honesty about a deadly product — with facts derived directly from the industry’s own documents. Lorillard took our attack personally — and it should, because its products cause huge personal suffering and cost. Our national coalition will continue the fight against nicotine addiction and youth smoking,” the Attorney General added.

Lorillard challenged the “truth” ad campaign, alleging that its spots violated the Master Settlement Agreement’s prohibition on personal attacks or vilification of tobacco companies and their employees. The Delaware Supreme Court rejected that argument in July, upholding a lower court ruling that the ads do not constitute personal attacks on or vilification of tobacco companies or their personnel.

In one “truth” ad, a “professional dog walker” calls a tobacco company and offers to sell it dog urine because “dog pee is full of urea, and that’s one of the chemicals you guys put in cigarette, and I was just hoping to make a little extra spending cash.” In rejecting Lorillard’s claims, the court noted that the “assertion that cigarettes often include a chemical that is also found in dog urine” is “factually correct.”

In another ad, young people play a recording over a truck loudspeaker in a wealthy neighborhood where tobacco executives live. The young people note that the tobacco industry “kills over 1,000 people a day,” and that cigarettes are “addictive,” and their recording urges tobacco executives to “do the right thing” and “look for a new job.”

The court decision notes that “Lorillard does not contend that tobacco-related disease does not kill over 1,000 people a day.”

The Truth campaign, launched in February 2000 by the American Legacy Foundation (ALF), continues to expose tobacco-related health threats and tobacco industry tactics to addict teen smokers. According to Legacy, it is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry.

Connecticut and other states jointly filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case in support of the American Legacy Foundation. According to information on the ALF website, AmericanLegacy.org, since February 2000, “truth” has become the largest youth smoking prevention campaign in the country and has helped reduce youth smoking rates.

The “Monitoring the Future” survey, sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by the University of Michigan, reported dramatic declines in smoking rates among eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders, citing the “truth” ads as a factor in this public health success story.

The Truth campaign accelerated the decline in youth smoking rates between 2000 and 2002. Twenty-two percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during these years is attributable directly to the Truth campaign, according to research published in the March 2005 issue of The American Journal of Public Health.

The study, which is the first to evaluate the behavioral outcomes of the “truth” campaign, found that by 2002 there were approximately 300,000 fewer youth smokers as a result of “truth.” The study assessed whether there is a dose-response relationship between the level of exposure to the campaign and changes in youth smoking rates during the first two years of the campaign, 2000–2002.

The research found that youths who were exposed to a greater number of “truth” ads were less likely to smoke.