Only Big Three To Get Cigarette Company Remedial Ads

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Cigarette company ads are coming back to TV -- sort of.

Only CBS, ABC and NBC will be part of a mandatory, year-long, prime time ad buy settlement with major tobacco companies over their marketing of cigarettes. That is according to a final order outlining how those "remedial" ads are to be formatted and carried. As part of the 2006 settlement with Big Tobacco over the known health risks from smoking that were omitted from their marketing campaigns for decades, the companies involved in the settlement -- Altria, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Lorillard Tobacco Company, and Philip Morris USA -- agreed to place "remedial" advertisements in various media, including those Big Three TV nets and online ads. The form and placement of those have now been agreed upon, and will include the statement that "secondhand smoke kills over 38,000 Americans per year.” Each of the four tobacco companies will have to buy ads on one of the Big Three networks (Fox was not included in the mandatory TV placements) five times per week between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., which means another 20 spots per week coming their way in prime time.


Only Big Three To Get Cigarette Company Remedial Ads