Tobacco Access

Advertising The industry did not question the that would impose restrictions on the Republican Presidential nomination, allocation of resources under the set- Government's regulation of nicotine. and for appointing Ms. Belshé, who Is Anybody tlement, said Lance Morgan, a tobac- As it stands, the settlement would worked in the tobacco industry's CO spokesman. It provides for $500 require cigarette companies to pay campaign against Proposition 99, to million annually on media efforts $368.5 billion over 25 years to states run the health department. and $200 million for education and for the costs of treating smoking- Ms. Belshé said the ad was pulled Getting prevention. related illness and to individual because one tobacco executive William D. Novelli, president of the plaintiffs as well as to finance the threatened litigation. "To continue to -nonprofit organization Campaign for anti-smoking campaign. run the ad would raise an unaccept- Tobacco-Free Kids and a participant California has been a leader in the able legal risk," she said. As for The Picture? in the settlement negotiations, fight against cigarettes since 1988, going easy on tobacco, "the current stressed that the pact could still be when voters approved Proposition spots make it clear the department is fine-tuned. 99, an initiative to raise cigarette not backing away from its willing- "The academics are right; the taxes, and began adopting workplace ness to take on the industry." best way to do public education is not and other restrictions, such as mak- Mr. Glantz cautioned that current Despite Ads, Teen-Age media alone," he said. "These num- ing bars smoke-free by 1998. anti-smoking sentiment is not an ad- bers were laid out in the heat of Last year, the extra tax of 25 cents equate safeguard against interfer- Smoking Is Unabated battle. This money may be moved a pack financed a $129 million effort, ence. "If the settlement goes for- around. We don't want to have just a which paid in roughly equal amounts ward, it requires continued aggres- media program." for ads, school-based programs and sive vigilance because these cam- By ANDREA ADELSON On a separate issue, Mr. Novelli grants to county health agencies and paigns cost this industry millions of said the settlement contains provi- local community programs. dollars," he said, adding that it is not sions that would protect the content the same as taking on tuberculosis. LOS ANGELES, July 16 - At first glance, the of negative advertising from indus- Since the California program be- "Tuberculosis doesn't make cam- billboard above a busy intersection here about eight try interference. Some critics say gan, the adult smoking rate steadily paign contributions." miles west of downtown has all the markings of a such Interference has muted the dropped, to 16 percent, from 26 per- Political expenditures by the to- classic cigarette advertisement. Expansive skies, cent, until last year, when it bumped bacco industry in California in- message of the California program. mesquite-covered hills and bronzed cowboys, paus- up to 18 percent. Some people at- creased in 1994 to $24.6 million, com- The California ads, though, often ing on their horses for a trail-side chat, paint a tribute that rise to changes in survey pared with $7.6 million in 1992, ac- deliver a powerful punch, particular- picture of Marlboro country. Only the single line of ly in a $22 million billboard and tele- questions, but others say it is a result cording to "Undermining Popular copy surprises the unsuspecting driver: "Bob, I've of industry interference with the Government," a 1995 report by the vision campaign that began in got emphysema." campaign's message. Nationwide, March, an effort that includes the Institute of Health Policy Studies at The ad that mockingly skewers an international the adult smoking rate is 25 percent. the University of California at San cowboy scene. tobacco icon is clearly powerful. Experts believe it By contrast, teen-age smoking In one TV spot, a woman who lost Francisco. California's campaign and similar hard-edged ads are one of the reasons rates, which stayed flat during the cost the industry $2 billion in lost her larynx to throat cancer takes a smoking rates have fallen over all in California in first years of the program at about 9 drag through a hole in her throat, sales in its first five years, says the recent years. percent, began rising in 1993, to 11.9 report, co-written by Mr. Glantz. asking how cigarette makers can What the state-run ad campaign has not done, percent in 1995 before declining The national settlement calls for deny nicotine's addictiveness. An- however, is stop teen-agers from starting to smoke. slightly, to 11.6 percent, last year. an independent oversight panel other has a toddler using blocks to Teen-age use, while lower than elsewhere in the The, nationwide rate, which is not spell out asthma, bronchitis and sud- made up of marketing and public nation, has - except for a statistically negligible fully comparable because of differ- health experts. "It would not be un- den infant death syndrome while an decline last year been on the rise since 1993. ent survey procedures, has also been der the thumb of Congress," said Mr. adult smokes nearby and an an- To affect larger numbers of teen-agers, the rising and now stands at 16 percent. Novelli of the Campaign for Tobacco- nouncer warns of the danger from A similar program in Massachu- Free Kids. negative ads must be combined with intensive edu- secondhand smoke. A third spot also cational efforts in the schools - more than Califor- setts did little better, making head- parodies a Marlboro ad: cowboys way only with eighth graders. "When nia has provided, academic researchers say, citing a The settlement would also require herd children, rather than cattle, into a kid makes a decision to smoke in variety of studies. larger warning labels, covering 25 a pen, as a voice says, "Because once junior high, he's pretty immune to The successes and failures of the California percent of the front of cigarette they get you where they want you, public health intervention," said program, the nation's most ambitious for nearly a they got you for good." And in a bus packs. Nine new messages would Greg Connolly; director of the state's take turns on the labels. decade, have gained a new significance in light of the poster, a suave man asks, "Mind if I tobacco control program. national settlement last month between tobacco smoke?" His female companion re- "The first wave of warnings will "I'd be interested to see the magic companies and anti-smoking forces. The California plies, "Care if I die?" receive more noticeability," said bullet," said Kimberly Belshé, direc- This week, state officials are Dean M. Krugman, a professor of program served as a model for the settlement. tor of California's Department of One of the settlement's key goals is to cut teen- scheduled to introduce ads intended advertising at the University of Health Services, which oversees age smoking sharply, by 30 percent over five years to reach some ethnic and racial Georgia in Athens. "Then they'r most of the state's anti-smoking ef- groups, including blacks and Asian- going to wear out." fort. "We know what doesn't work," Continued on Page 6 Americans, that have been showing a For warnings to be effective, they she said, acknowledging that the rise in smoking rates. In one TV spot, must be meaningful to consumers, Continued From First Business Page money that goes toward school pro- he said. But under the settlen camaraderie among five Asian- grams is not effectively used, some- "there is no testing program put in American men on a car trip is and 60 percent over the next decade. times getting diverted to general place to find out which works." spoiled when one passenger lights health topics. "It's a big chunk of And like the California program, one up. The offender is pushed out, land- money spread very thin." of its main tools is a broad "counter ing beside a sign for Death Valley. The magic bullet is much heavier advertising" campaign. Still, the advertising "cornerstone doses of school programs, argued Yet the settlement provides far of the settlement is something of a Cornelia Pechmann, an associate less proportionately for school ef- gamble when it comes to teen-age professor of marketing at the Uni- forts than even the California pro- smoking, some industry experts say. versity of California at Irvine. Near- gram does. In California, for every For one thing, anti-smoking cam- ly 100 studies show that smoking dollar spent on advertising, roughly paigns can sometimes go so far that rates among students fall signifi- another $1 is spent on the schools. they end up glamorizing smoking by cantly when anti-smoking advertis- Under the settlement, however, $2.50 making it appear as tempting as ing is combined with intensive would be spent on advertising for forbidden fruit. Indeed, some experts school-based education, she said. every $1 going to state and local note that the more smoking comes As for adults, Stanton A. Glantz, a education and prevention programs, under attack by adults, the more professor of medicine at the Univer- including those at schools. attractive or "cooler" it becomes to sity of California at San Francisco The state attorneys general and many teen-agers, who typically feel and a new member of the state's opponents of smoking who negotiat- immune from the physical dangers tobacco oversight panel, blames po- ed the settlement express confidence that cigarettes pose. litical meddling for last year's resur- that their campaign will succeed be- There are also doubts about the gence in smoking. cause its impact will be magnified by value of new, larger warning labels "The old California campaign was an array of new marketing restric- on cigarette packs, another element extremely effective," Mr. Glantz THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1997 tions imposed on the industry. The of the pact. said, citing one ad that questioned pact would limit the distribution and The settlement must still be ap- the industry's integrity. The ad used marketing of tobacco products to proved by Congress. A White House excerpts from Congressional testi- children, for example, including bans task force reviewing the proposed mony by tobacco executives who on animated characters. deal has already expressed misgiv- said nicotine was not addictive. A The As insurance, they say, the tobacco ings about some parts of the ar- narrator said: "Now they want us to companies have agreed to pay finan- rangement and is certain to suggest believe secondhand smoke isn't bad. cial penalties if the targeted reduc- changes. Last week, President Clin- Do they think we're stupid?" tions in teen-age smoking are not ton rejected as "totally unreason- Mr. Glantz contends the spot was reached. Even so, some advocates able" a major element of the pact pulled because of Gov. Pete Wilson's for public health have criticized the ties to the industry. The Governor $2 billion cap on the amount of such has been criticized by anti-smoking fines, saying that they should be un- groups for hiring Craig Fuller, a limited. former Philip Morris executive, to manage his brief bid for the 1996