Tobacco companies in the US have run ads in a national campaign, admitting that cigarettes are addictive and deadly.
The ‘corrective statements’ were court ordered, and run in newspapers across the country. This took place 11 years after it was ruled that each company violated racketeering laws by deceiving the public on the dangers of smoking.
The full newspaper ad read: “A Federal Court has ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Philip Morris USA, Altria and Lorillard to make this statement about the health effects of smoking.”
“Smoking kills, on average, 1200 Americans. Every day,” it said. The ad continued that “more people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol, combined.”
The ads will be published across 50 major US papers between November ’17 and March ’18, following an initial delay pending litigation.