he CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO-FREE KIDS challenged Philip Morris to match its rhetoric with action and stop all advertising in magazines with high youth readership.

In a new advertising campaign launched in The Washington Post on February 16, 2000 Philip Morris claimed it is a changed company and that its goal is "to responsibly market our products to adults who choose to smoke." On its own web site, Philip Morris claims that "cigarette brand advertising does not appear in publications directed primarily to those under 21 years of age."

But this rhetoric is not matched by action. Philip Morris continues to advertise in magazines with high youth readership, including Sports Illustrated, People, Rolling Stone, Inside Sports, Hot Rod, Glamour, Vibe, Sport, Motor Trend, Spin, Mademoiselle and others. All of these magazines have youth readership (12 to 17 years old) totaling more than two million or more than 15 percent of the magazine’s overall readership, according to data obtained from Simmons Market Research Bureau, an independent market research firm.

The CAMPAIGN unveiled its own ad on February 16th headlined "Big Tobacco’s Latest Double Talk." The ad points out that while Philip Morris tells policy makers it supports youth tobacco prevention, Philip Morris and the other tobacco companies continue to spend $15.5 million a day - $5.6 billion a year - on marketing their deadly products, much of it in magazines and other venues that impact kids. The ad points out that almost nine out of 10 adult smokers were addicted as kids. It concludes: "Don’t believe Big Tobacco. They’re still addicting kids."

[full release]

Resources

Philip Morris' Washington Post Advertisement (66K .jpg)

The Campaign's Advertisement (77K .jpg)

Magazines with High Youth Readership (html)

Fact Sheet: Philip Morris: A Long History of Double Talk (.pdf)

Fact Sheet: Nothing Has Changed: Current Tobacco Marketing Restrictions vs. What the Industry Agreed to Do in 1997 (But Hasn't) (.pdf)

Fact Sheet: Philip Morris & Targeting Kids (.pdf)

Fact Sheet: The Cigarette Companies Cannot Survive Unless Kids Smoke (.pdf)

Fact Sheet: Smoking and Kids (.pdf)

Fact Sheet: Tobacco Company Marketing to Kids (.pdf)

Fact Sheet: Tobacco Industry Quotes (.pdf)

Report: "Trust Us"