Around Thanksgiving you should start seeing television advertisements from the tobacco industry. These are not what you might expect. Finally, after years of litigation the big three tobacco companies have been ordered to run advertisements to partly correct ‘false and misleading (health) claims’ made by them to promote the sale of cigarettes.
The courts decided in 2006 that the tobacco companies had deliberately deceived the public about the health effects from smoking. The judge in that case found the tobacco companies had mislead the public on the health effects from smoking, the addictiveness of smoking, impacts from second hand smoke, and low tar and nicotine cigarettes. Since then the tobacco companies have been appealing. But, at long last, they are ordered to issue ‘corrective statements’.
You can find out more about this court ruling at RICO | Public Health and Tobacco Policy Center
