You’ll soon start seeing tobacco ads in print and on TV, but they won’t be trying to sell you the products.
These are court-ordered corrective statements coming from tobacco companies after more than 11 years of litigation. They'll address how tobacco companies understated the dangers of their products and marketed them to children.
"They have to disclose they indeed have lied about the harms of secondhand smoke; they purposely manipulated tobacco products to increase nicotine consumption and increase the addictive properties; they have lied about the effects of what's called low-tar, light cigarettes, that they're a healthier alternative," said Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Executive Director John Woods.
Besides TV networks, cigarette packaging and major newspapers, the ads will appear in the Oklahoma City–based Black Chronicle.
"Part of that settlement agreement was they had to make these confessions in predominately black newspapers, because we know that they targeted minorities," Woods said.
Woods said tobacco companies spend $169 million a year marketing their products to Oklahomans.
"In Oklahoma, we know that 90 percent of adult smokers started before the age of 18, so bringing the awareness of that to light, I think, is an important component whether we're talking about policy changes at the state level or at the community level, whether we're talking about folks making a decision to quit," Woods said. "Recognizing the manipulation, I think, is an important component."
TSET says smoking kills 7,500 Oklahoma adults each year, and one in five children live with secondhand smoke that contributes to asthma and other health problems.
