Philip Morris Agrees to End One Form of "Hidden Cigarette Commercial"

Move Comes Days After Formal Complaint Was Filed With Justice Dept.

Philip Morris has agreed to end the practice of locating cigarette ads in stadiums where they are picked up by television cameras and broadcast into tens of millions of homes as so-called "hidden cigarette commercials." The announcement was made only days after the Justice Department received a formal complaint about this practice which was alleged to violate the congressional-imposed ban on cigarette commercials on radio and television.

The complaint was filed with the Department of Justice by John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a national antismoking organization. Previous complaints filed by Banzhaf have led to a ban on conventional cigarette commercials, no-smoking on domestic flights, an OSHA proposal for a total workplace smoking ban, tougher cigarette warnings, a prohibition on cigarette promotions within national parks, smoke detectors in airplane lavatories, and other legal and regulatory actions.

To demonstrate that cigarette manufacturers and other advertisers pay substantially more for billboard and other sign locations where their message will be picked up by TV cameras, the complaint cited reports of a commercial service which measures the number and amount of such "in-focus" exposure of brand names and logos to the nearest one-hundredth of a second. The reports also measure how many TV viewers see each in-focus exposure, and calculate the value of such exposure in terms of the equivalent cost of conventional paid commercials. The value of such hidden commercials for cigarettes often exceeds one million dollars for a single televised sports event.

The complaint also cites a previously-secret Justice Department ruling concerning the Holmes-Cooney boxing match. That ruling held that "the use of materials, including ring posts or ring mats, on which the name of a cigarette is printed in a manner that makes it visible when the match is broadcast or transmitted" violates the Congressional prohibition on cigarette commercials. More recently, the Department took the same position with regard to cigarette billboards and signs at Madison Square Garden. While Banzhaf said he is delighted that Philip Morris took this step, ASH is also demanding that it stop running other "hidden commercials" by bribing movie producers to feature cigarette logos and smoking in movies to be shown on television.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 6, 1995

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL: John Banzhaf (202) 659-4310

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