More spent to market smokeless tobacco.
While spending on cigarette marketing has dropped, more money is being pumped into marketing of smokeless tobacco, new federal reports find.Cigarette marketing expenditures in the United States dropped from $12.5 billion in 2006 to $9.9 billion in 2008, but smokeless tobacco marketing rose during the same time period from about $354 million to almost $550 million, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
"While it is a positive step that cigarette marketing has declined, the tobacco companies continue to spend huge sums to market their deadly and addictive products," said APHA member Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "Tobacco companies in 2008 spent 20 times more to market tobacco products than the states currently spend on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit."
He said states spent about $518 million on such programs in 2011. The "huge mismatch" between tobacco companies' marketing budgets and state prevention and cessation money underscore the need for "aggressive action by all levels of government to stop the tobacco epidemic," Myers said.
The "Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report" and "Federal Trade Commission Smokeless Tobacco Report" for 2007 and 2008, released in July, are available at www.ftc.gov.
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| Title Annotation: | NATION IN BRIEF |
|---|---|
| Author: | Currie, Donya |
| Publication: | The Nation's Health |
| Date: | Oct 1, 2011 |
| Words: | 201 |
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