HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Attorney General Tom Corbett has announced that Pennsylvania, along with several other states, have filed a series of multi-million dollar lawsuits against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for violating a national ban on the use of cartoons in the advertisement and promotion of cigarettes.
Corbett said the lawsuits are in response to a national advertising campaign in Rolling Stone magazine, published in November 2007, which includes a nine-page "special advertising section" for Camel brand cigarettes featuring numerous cartoon images.
"We view this cartoon-based advertising campaign as a flagrant violation of the 1998 national tobacco settlement, which includes an outright ban on the use of any cartoon in tobacco advertising," Corbett said. "Our lawsuit is part of what we hope becomes a nationwide legal action seeking more than $100 million in sanctions against R.J. Reynolds for violating the cartoon ban."
Corbett said Pennsylvania is currently coordinating efforts with other states in order to bring similar suits across the country. Attorneys general from California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Ohio and Washington are in the process of filing similar legal actions in their states.
Corbett said the Pennsylvania lawsuit asks the court to rule that R.J. Reynolds has violated the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). The lawsuit seeks sanctions of at least $7 million for the printed copies of the illegal cartoon ads, which were circulated in Pennsylvania. The suit also seeks a penalty of $100 for each "hit" on the R.J. Reynolds' "The Farm Rocks" website, www.thefarmrocks.com.
Also, the suit seeks the removal of these cartoon images from all websites, ads and other promotional materials; a payment by R.J. Reynolds to the Legacy Foundation, equal to the full cost of the Rolling Stone advertisement, to be used to support anti-smoking advertisements; along with attorney's fees and costs.
Corbett noted that if similar legal action is taken by every other state, the lawsuits could seek a total of more than $100 million in sanctions against R.J. Reynolds.
David Howard, a spokesperson for R.J. Reynolds, told The Winston-Salem Journal that the company is "in the process of receiving and reviewing the lawsuits. We do not believe these actions are in accordance with the requirements that are clearly spelled out in the MSA for handling alleged violations."
He repeated comments made November 26 that R.J. Reynolds was disappointed in the magazine's choice of how it presented editorial content for the pullout. "They came to us and said they were going to do a special pullout on indie rock, and we told them about our Camel 'The Farm' promotion," Howard said. "It seemed like it would be a great fit. The first time we saw the editorial content in the pullout was when it was published. If we had known that it would have looked like that, we would not have approved it or allowed our ads to be placed there."
The publisher of the magazine, Ray Chelstowski, told The New York Times that R.J. Reynolds "had no idea it would take a cartoon format" because "the advertisers don't know" in advance about articles, just as "the editors don't see the advertising."
R.J. Reynolds announced in late November that it would not advertise its brands in newspapers or consumer magazines next year. (Click here to read the CSP Daily News story.)
In other tobacco news, Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris USA, the U.S. tobacco subsidiary of Altria Group Inc., New York, confirmed Monday that it has received $1.2 billion in funds held in an escrow account under the bond stipulation in the Engle smoking and health class-action case in Florida. PM USA also said it will immediately seek the discharge of a $100 million appeal bond in the same case.
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