Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact:  http://www.seattletimes.com/
Pubdate: Thur, 17 Sep 1998
Author:  Lawrence L. Knutson, The Associated Press

CANCER SOCIETY BUYS ADS AGAINST TOBACCO INDUSTRY

WASHINGTON - The American Cancer Society has launched a new $5 million ad
campaign to "expose the lies" it says Big Tobacco told to fight a
multibillion-dollar settlement in Congress this year.

A spokesman for American tobacco says the industry was only truthful when it
told the public the drive to curb youth smoking had been corrupted by calls
for new taxes on cigarettes to pay for more government spending.

The cancer society yesterday announced it will use a series of six TV ads to
try to turn the tables on Joe Camel.

The ads will use images of tobacco executives swearing to tell the truth
before a House committee and a clip from a tobacco-industry TV commercial
showing a Christmas tree showering tax dollars on the federal government.

The first cancer-society spots use these words:

"Tobacco companies are on the air with over $50 million in advertising. The
question is - can we believe a word they are saying? Have they told the
truth about cancer? The truth about nicotine being addictive? The truth
about marketing to kids?

"The fact is, no matter how much money they spend - a lie is just that. Tell
Big Tobacco that we don't buy their lies - or their ad campaigns."

Tobacco-industry spokesman Steve Duchesne rejected the accusations.

"They are singing a very tired old tune," he said. "They seem to be engaged
in nothing more than finger-pointing and name-calling. I would think they
would have something better to do with their $5 million."

The advertising campaign launched by the tobacco companies last spring was
widely credited for thwarting major anti-tobacco legislation.

Cancer-society executives said they hope their ads will refocus the public
spotlight on protecting children from the addictive and often cancer-causing
properties of tobacco.

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Checked-by: Don Beck