A March 4, 2005 article by Kirsten Boyd Goldberg on CancerLetter.com -- about the Legacy Foundation dubbing Time Inc. an anti-tobacco "hero" despite their magazines running many tobacco ads -- quotes an article on the topic by ACSH's Rivka Weiser:
"While Time Inc. has taken some steps to support tobacco control, it is shocking that the corporation is being given a high-profile award for its advancement of the cause," Rivka Weiser, of the American Council on Science and Heath, wrote in an opinion piece for the council. "It is not just that Time Inc.'s major magazines promote smoking but that some have done so in particularly egregious ways. Time and People recently featured advertisements for new candy-flavored cigarettes."
Legacy hasn't responded to critics and didn't return calls from The Cancer Letter. Time Inc., too, didn't respond to requests for comment...
After the settlement agreement, Philip Morris suspended cigarette advertisements from People and Sports Illustrated due to their high level of youth readership, adopting a proposed FDA standard of a maximum of 15 percent youth readership, or 2 million youth readers, according to Weiser of ACSH. Other tobacco companies adopted a less strict standard.
The recent ads for new flavored cigarettes are cause for concern, Weiser wrote. "Advertisements for these cigarettes, which are probably particularly appealing to young people, are at best irresponsible for portraying a deadly product as candy; at worst, they are in violation of the MSA's prohibition against directly or indirectly targeting youth with cigarette advertisements," she wrote.
