Federal Rule Restricts Big Tobacco 's Marketing to Children

Washington, D.C. – March 18, 2010 – Tobacco companies will continue to feel the unwelcome impact of federal regulation of their industry, as landmark U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restrictions on marketing tobacco products to children and teens were announced today. The restrictions take effect June 22, 2010, the one year anniversary of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which granted the FDA the power to regulate the manufacture, marketing and sale of tobacco products.

“Big Tobacco has for decades specifically targeted ad campaigns to attract and addict generations of young smokers,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “Every day, 3,500 children pick up their first cigarette and 1,000 children become addicted smokers. The restrictions on tobacco marketing intended to hook children to these addictive and deadly products is a critical step toward saving lives.”

The tobacco industry spends more than $35 million every day to aggressively market its products to addict new, young smokers, keep current users from quitting and mislead the public about the harms of its products. Today’s released rule will, among other things:

• require retailers to verify a purchaser’s age by photographic identification
• prohibit free samples of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, except in adult-only facilities
• prohibit the sale of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products through vending machines and self-service displays, except in facilities where individuals under the age of 18 are not present at any time
• limits the advertising and labeling to which children and adolescents are exposed to a black-and-white, text-only format (currently litigation regarding this provision is moving through the judicial system)
• prohibits the sale or distribution of brand-identified promotional items, such as hats and tee shirts
• prohibits sponsorship of sporting and other events, teams, and entries in a brand name of a tobacco product

“The tobacco industry has spent the last 50 years misleading smokers about the dangers of tobacco use and engaging in targeted marketing to youth,” said Robert E. Youle, a cancer survivor and volunteer chair of ACS CAN's Board of Directors. “The restrictions on marketing to children is a step forward to break the deadly cycle of addiction and put an end to Big Tobacco’s targeting of our nation’s children.”

Litigation currently moving through the U.S. judicial system and brought about by Big Tobacco threatens to overturn these restrictions. In January, a federal judge in Kentucky upheld many critical provisions in the law, including large, graphic health warnings on cigarette packs; prohibiting Big Tobacco from making health claims about tobacco products without FDA review; and banning several forms of marketing to children, including brand name sponsorships, tobacco-branded merchandise such as caps and t-shirts, free samples of tobacco products and free gifts with purchase. Disappointingly, though, the judge struck down two provisions of the law: banning the use of color and images in high youth viewership tobacco advertising and prohibiting claims implying that a tobacco product is safer because of FDA approval. The Society and ACS CAN, along with nine other public health and consumer advocacy organizations, have filed friend of the court (amicus) briefs in support of the law and look forward to the opportunity to help defend the areas of the law that were struck down.

ACS CAN, the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, is a leading group working to ensure effective implementation of the law. ACS CAN joined more than 1,000 organizations from the public health, medical, children’s and faith-based communities to support the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in Congress. Together, the Society and ACS CAN have been leaders in the fight for strong tobacco control policies at the federal, state and local levels for decades.

ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Christina Saull
(202) 585-3250
[email protected]

Steven Weiss
(202) 661-5711
[email protected]