MULTI-STATE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT 2.  The New Tobacco-Marketing Restrictions Are Helpful But More Needs To Be Done

The agreement establishes the following new restrictions on tobacco company marketing and advertising:

• Eliminates tobacco billboards and transit ads.
• Prohibits the use of cartoon characters to promote tobacco products.
• Prohibits tobacco brand name merchandise (e.g., hats, t-shirts), except at tobacco-sponsored events.
• Prohibits tobacco brand-name sponsorship for concerts, events in which any contestants are under 18, or for football, baseball, soccer or hockey (except for Brown & Williamson's continued sponsorship of either the Kool Jazz Festival or the GPC Country Music Festival).
• Limits other tobacco brand-name sponsorships to one event or series (such as the Winston cup race tour) annually per manufacturer.
• Permits free tobacco-product distributions only at locations where children are not permitted.
• Restricts offers of non-tobacco items or gifts based on proof of purchase to adults.
• Prohibits the use of non-tobacco brand names (such as Harley Davidson Cigarettes) on
  tobacco products.
• Reaffirms the previously agreed upon prohibition on tobacco product placement in movies and on TV.

The agreement still permits the following tobacco advertising and marketing practices to continue:

• Permits outdoor advertising with signs of fourteen square feet or smaller on the buildings or property of places where tobacco is sold (including stores near schools) and at events sponsored by the tobacco industry.
• Permits the use of human images in tobacco advertising, such as the Marlboro cowboy.
• Places no limits or restrictions on tobacco advertisements in newspapers and magazines.
• Places no limits or restrictions on advertising in places that sell tobacco products.
• Permits each tobacco company to continue a single tobacco brand-name sponsorship of auto racing, rodeo, or other event not specifically prohibited (see above), with "single" sponsorships including the sponsorship of entire series of auto races, rodeos, or other events (e.g., all Nascar races).
• Places no restrictions on the televising of tobacco brand-name sponsored events.
• Allows unlimited tobacco-company sponsorships of events in their corporate (as opposed to brand) names.
• Places no restrictions on tobacco Internet advertising.
• Places no restrictions on tobacco direct-mail advertising.

The agreement does state, however, that the tobacco companies cannot "take any action, directly or indirectly, to target youth in the advertising, promotion, or marketing of tobacco products." Whether this provision will have any impact on their behavior will depend on how vigorously it is enforced by the states' attorneys general and how it is interpreted by the courts.

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