• June 1, 2007

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) issued press releases yesterday apparently aimed at all 50 states individually and calling on Congress to pass legislation granting the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products.

"Tobacco companies spent a massive (fill in dollar figure) million on marketing in (fill in name of state) in 2005, with most of it spent on marketing in retail stores that is effective at encouraging kids to smoke," each release started out.

The CTFK calculated the amount of cigarette marketing in each state based on national marketing expenditures contained in a recent report by the Federal Trade Commission and the percentage of cigarette packs sold in each state.

"The FTC report showed that the tobacco companies have nearly doubled their marketing expenditures nationwide since the 1998 state tobacco settlement, which was supposed to curtail tobacco marketing," the release said. "In 2005, the latest year in the report, the tobacco companies spent $13.4 billion on marketing nationwide -- $36.6 million a day. In 1998, the tobacco companies spent $6.9 billion on marketing."