• The New York Times, Wednesday, April 2, 2008 11:45 AM

As legislation moves through Congress that would give the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate the tobacco industry, R.J. Reynolds is mounting an advertising campaign that attacks what it views as the bill's vulnerability: a weak, overextended FDA.

The print and television campaign includes a TV spot using a comic plate-spinning routine to illustrate RJR's point that the FDA is already unable to oversee its core mission of ensuring food and drug safety. So why, the ads ask, should Congress add more to its plate?

The ads are running in Washington as well as in selected regional markets in the districts of crucial members of Congress. The bill, with bipartisan support, has more than 50 Senate sponsors and 215 sponsors in the House. A Senate committee has already approved the bill, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to take it up today.

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