Smokeless Marketing Doubled

The Federal Trade Commission reported that smokeless tobacco marketing increased from $354.1 million in 2006 to $411.3 million in 2007 and $547.9 million in 2008. When measured from 2005, smokeless tobacco marketing has more than doubled, from $250.8 million to $547.9 million.

Counting both cigarette and smokeless tobacco marketing, the tobacco companies spent $10.5 billion on marketing in 2008. That's nearly $29 million per day!! The tobacco industry spends 52% more than in 1998, which was the when the tobacco settlement was enacted. That settlement was suppose to curtail tobacco marketing.

In 2008, tobacco companies spent 20 times more than states currently spend on preventing kids from smoking and helping smokers quit. This huge mismatch between how much tobacco companies spend to encourage tobacco use and how much states spend to discourage is a major contributing factor to the slowing of smoking declines in recent years.

Tobacco use is the nation's number one cause of preventable death, killing more than 400,000 people and costing $96 billion in health care bills each year. These deaths and costs are entirely preventable if elected officials at all levels fight tobacco use as aggressively as the tobacco companies market their deadly products.

Full article below:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ftc-reports-show-tobacco-companies-still-spend-huge-sums-on-marketing-126532003.html