Tobacco Industry Watch

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“Defendants have marketed and sold their lethal products with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted.”
— U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler in 2006 verdict against cigarette companies

A Deadly Fraud

Tobacco’s devastating toll in the United States and around the world is no accident. It stems directly from the tobacco industry’s insidious and even illegal practices. For decades, the tobacco industry has:

  • Marketed its deadly and addictive products to children
  • Deceived the public about the harmful effects of tobacco use
  • Fought proven measures that reduce tobacco use and save lives

Presented with overwhelming evidence of tobacco industry deception, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler in 2006 issued a landmark verdict that the major cigarette manufacturers are racketeers who engaged in a deadly fraud. In June 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Judge Kessler’s verdict to stand.

In her final opinion, Judge Kessler found that the tobacco companies’ wrongdoing continues:

“Their continuing conduct misleads consumers in order to maximize Defendants’ revenues by recruiting new smokers (the majority of whom are under the age of 18), preventing current smokers from quitting, and thereby sustaining the industry.”

Read more in our Industry Watch report U.S. Courts: Big Tobacco Guilty As Charged.
 


 

In the United States alone, the tobacco companies spend $12.8 billion a year – more than $35 million a day – to market their products, much of it on price discounts that make cigarettes more appealing and affordable to kids. They spend millions more on lobbying and political contributions aimed at defeating tobacco taxes, smoke-free laws and other measures to reduce tobacco use.
 

Big Tobacco’s New Tricks

Despite having its marketing curtailed by the 1998 settlement of state lawsuits and new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, the industry constantly seeks new ways to circumvent restrictions. They have introduced color-coded cigarette packaging to get around the FDA’s ban on the deceptive terms “light and “low-tar.” And they have marketed an array of new smokeless tobacco products in ways that appeal to kids and undercut smokers’ efforts to quit.

Read more in our Industry Watch report on The “Light and Low” Deception.

The industry has also redoubled its promotion of tobacco products around the world, targeting low- and middle-income countries with limited resources to deal with its deadly products and deceptive marketing.

Get the global perspective on how tobacco companies market their products.