Tobacco Promos for Kids Attacked

By Jim Stafford, The Daily Oklahoman

Jun. 2–Tobacco companies poured $245.8 million in marketing dollars into Oklahoma in 2005, targeting retail stores with advertising effective in encouraging young people to smoke, according to a study released this week by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The campaign released the study just as Congress is considering legislation that will grant the Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco products, including the authority to crack down on tobacco marketing and sales to children.

The study’s goal The organization calculated the amount of cigarette marketing in each state based on national marketing expenditures contained in a recent report by the Federal Trade Commission and the percentage of cigarette packs sold in each state.

“The goal of all of this is to pass FDA regulation of tobacco, which would include some pretty stringent marketing controls, especially where kids are concerned,” said Joel Spivak, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “Most of this (marketing money) was point-of-sale and price promotions. The people who are most vulnerable to that are kids, and they are the ones who spend a good deal of time in convenience stores where most of the money is being spent.”

However, a tobacco industry spokesman said that in-store advertising and price promotions are aimed only at adults.

“Those promotions don’t apply to anybody under age because they can’t purchase the product,” said David Howard, a spokesman for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. “None of that promotional spending applies to them. Who it does apply to are adult tobacco consumers, those of legal age to purchase the product.”

‘Replacement smokers’ Nationwide, the tobacco industry spent $13.4 billion in 2005 on marketing, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

“They spend tons of money on that, because what they are trying to do is have replacement smokers,” said Carolyn Durbin, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma City/County Health Department. “That’s kind of tobacco talk, but 16 people a day die from tobacco related illnesses, and therefore, who’s going to pick up where these people have (been)? They’ve lost 16 smokers, so they have to replace them.”

R.J. Reynolds’ spokesman Howard questioned marketing numbers released by the campaign, saying that it used its own formula to arrive at the numbers.

“One of the very important facts to recognize is that in recent years the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) numbers we have reported, our overall expenditures are down over 11 percent,” Howard said. “We are figuring out how to effectively communicate with adult tobacco consumers, and our communications are clearly directed to that audience.”

Doug Matheny, chief of the Tobacco Use Prevention Service at the State Department of Health, countered that the tobacco marketing numbers for Oklahoma “are conservative if anything” because the state has proved to be a successful market for the industry.

“An American Cancer Society publication entitled ‘Analysis of Oklahoma Tobacco Documents’ found that tobacco executives have viewed Oklahoma as ‘an ideal test market for cigarettes’ and that tobacco companies have ‘heavily relied’ upon ‘sampling, direct mail/couponing, in-store advertising, door-to-door canvassing, telemarketing, and incentive distribution.’”

FDA legislation The FDA legislation before Congress will limit tobacco advertising in stores and in magazines with significant teen readership to black-and-white text only, eliminating colorful, youth-oriented images that depict smoking as cool and glamorous, the anti-tobacco campaign said in its news release. It also would require stores to place tobacco products behind the counter, ban all remaining tobacco brand sponsorships of sports and entertainment events; and ban free cigarette samples and free giveaways of non-tobacco items with the purchase of tobacco products.

Spivak said his organization’s records show that the tobacco industry outspent Oklahoma’s anti-tobacco efforts by an almost 25-to-1 ratio, with Oklahoma spending only $10 million trying to curb tobacco use in the state. Nationwide, anti-tobacco spending totaled $597 million, which was dwarfed by the industry’s $13.4 billion in marketing.

Tobacco-related health related costs in Oklahoma were $1.16 billion in 2005, the campaign reported. Nationwide, tobacco-related health costs were $96.7 billion.

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