Tobacco Companies Pay Up with Corrective Statements
Nearly 50 years have passed since the last cigarette ad aired in the United States. But due to a federal court order, televisions and newspapers across the country are running a new type of tobacco ad called “corrective statements”.
Altria, R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, and Philip Morris are four tobacco companies responsible for denying their products harm consumer health and have done so for decades. In fact, these companies even worked together to spread untrue information about tobacco safety, despite a lot of evidence which proves otherwise.
Federal Judge Gladys Kessler agreed, as evident by this excerpt from her 2006 ruling:
[Tobacco companies] profit from a highly addictive product which causes diseases that lead to…an immeasurable amount of human suffering and economic loss, and a profound burden on our national health care system. [Tobacco companies] have known…for at least 50 years…and lied, misrepresented and deceived the American public…about the devastating health effects of smoking…
“Cancer by the Carton” — Reader’s Digest, 1952
Reader’s Digest lead the charge towards increasing public awareness of the dangers of tobacco use by writing about the research of Drs. Wynder and Graham. The magazine called tobacco-associated lung cancer “a medical controversy. . . largely kept from public notice.”
The tobacco industry’s response? The Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) was founded to wage their own war on truth by publishing misinformation as early as 1954:
We accept an interest in people’s health as a basic responsibility, paramount to every other consideration in our business. We believe the products we make are not injurious to health. We always have and always will cooperate closely with those whose task it is to safeguard the public health.
Fortunately, all corrective statements will have an introduction that lets people know about the Federal Court order. A study published in 2014 found that messages about the risks of tobacco directly from tobacco companies may not be credible to the public. However, mentioning the court order in the ads may help alleviate skepticism and “correct consumer beliefs and knowledge”.
Filters, Paper, and Flavorings — Vector Tobacco Memo of Ways to Improve Tobacco Delivery, 2001
Meanwhile, thousands of people died every year from complications of tobacco use while their manufacturers looked for ways to both hide the risk and create a league of so-called “replacement smokers”. Flavored tobacco, cigarette filters, and low-tar products were all marketed as alternatives for people concerned about the health risks of smoking. These were all part of an elaborate ploy designed to, as Philip Morris put in a 1994–1998 organizational strategic plan, “retain smokers as they age”.
Addictiveness was also downplayed by tobacco companies in consumer marketing, in part due to the changing definition of “addiction” by the World Health Organization.
“Doubt is our product” — Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company internal memo, 1969
This victory hasn’t come easy for the six anti-tobacco advocacy organizations (left) who sued for the truth. The original ruling by federal courts happened in 2006, but tobacco companies delayed issuing these statements during an 11-year-long appeals process.
A caveat of the appeals process is that technology and viewing habits have changed since the suit was filed in 1999. Television and newspaper may have made more of an impact at that time, but for people today, 4 in 10 receive their news from online sources. Even more critical to changing news habits is that the key group of people targeted by the tobacco industry’s fraudulent marketing strategy are younger adults where only 27% report watching TV as a news source and a mere 5% get news from print newspapers.
What You Can Do
Share a different corrective statement on social media. Every week, every month — it’s your choice! Help reach the tobacco industry’s target market first. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free kids has done the work for you. Here’s a resource filled with sample posts for use on social media.
For more information: Here are the highlights of the messages to be shared in the corrective statements. Also, read Judge Kessler’s full ruling here.
Jenn Hamilton
