• NY Times, Friday, March 10, 2006 11:47 AM

Cigarette sales in the U.S. are dropping, but tobacco companies still have huge budgets to market their products and are far outspending their anti-tobacco opponents. This week cigarette sales reached a 55-year low and have declined by more than 20 percent ever since the industry reached a landmark $246 billion settlement with several U.S. states in 1998. The agreement imposed severe restrictions on how tobacco products can be advertised and promoted, but tobacco companies have discovered other means to get their point across. Antismoking groups, on the other hand, are now struggling to find the money to maintain even a small-scale ad campaign. The Federal Trade Commission has reported that tobacco companies spent more than $15.1 billion in 2003 to market their product in the U.S., up from $12.4 billion in 2002, despite the diminishing importance of the market. Conversely, the American Legacy Foundation, the most visible antismoking group, has sharply cut its advertising budget. The foundation received up to $300 million a year from 1999 to 2003 from the settlement and invested about 50 percent of the money. Its current budget is derived from the proceeds of those investments. "It truly is a David versus Goliath scenario," said Joseph Martyak, the executive vice president for marketing, communications and policy for the Foundation.

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