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- 29 



■Vintaft Ids continued to plAy on f^e health fears of Sfflokers. They 

 featured everyday kinds of people explaining that they were very 

 concerned about the 'controversy' over the tar and nicotine in 

 cigarettes, but that they enjoyed smoking and didn't want to quit. 

 The solution, these sankers had concluded, was to smoke Vantage. The 

 authoritative voice of the ads stated that, although Vantage wasn't 

 the lowest tar cigarette on the market, it was lower than 95 percent 

 of all cigarettes, and the only low tar with good taste. 



"Kent Golden Lights used comparison advertising to show that they were 

 lower In tar than many other cigarette brands. Kent ads claimed that 

 they had '25 * Less Tar,' without saying less than what. They also 

 claimed that Kent was America's #1 selling low tar cigarette. 



"True ads of the perio.1 usea a movif siiailar to thot of the Vantage 

 ads — intelligent pcoi ^e v.iio, av.c. cb.isl deration of the facts had 

 decided that, rather thsn quit, t:-.sy uould smoke a cigarette if^Hed 

 to be reasonably safe to smoke. One such ad featured a woman on the 

 tennis court with a cigarette in hev :ia.,i saying, 'Considering all I'd 

 heard, I decided to either quit or smoke True. I saoke True.' The ad 

 went on to say 'The low tar, low nicotine cigarette. Think about It.' 

 True ads also engaged In comparison advertising, claiming to be 

 'lowest in tar. ' 



"Merit ads relied upon both scientific and market research claims to 

 sell cigarettes. The market research claim was that consumer opinion 

 studies had shown smokers to like Merit as well as or better than 

 cigarettes containing 60 percent more tar. The scientific claim was 

 that Merit had found a way of delivering flavor at lower tar levels: 

 'by isolating certain 'key' ingredients of tobacco In cigarette smoke, 

 ingredients that deliver taste way out of proportion to tar, 

 researchers at Philip Morris have developed an 'Enriched Flavor' 

 process so successful at boosting flavor, the resulting cigarette 

 actually delivers as much — or more -- taste than brands having more 

 tar.' Many Merit ads used a newspaper headline format to make it 

 appear that a mejor scientific breakthrough had been announced. 



"Carlton relied upon claimed results of government studies and 

 comptrlflon advertising to make the claim that 'Carlton is Lowest.' 

 One ad cltlaed that, 'Based on latest U.S. government reports, ten 

 packs of Carlton have less tar than one pack of...,' and then went on 

 to list Mny of the popular low tar cigarettes of the day. Carlton 

 ads made no reference to taste -- the sole selling point was low tar. 



"Now ads also claimed that cigarette to be lowest in tar. In 1976, 

 Now had 2 mg of tar. In 1977, ads claimed that the level had been 

 reduced to I mg (this is more than Just 'low tar'. This is ultra-low 

 'tar'... If you want to be sure you're getting ultra-low 'tar,' count 

 all the way down to Now's number l.') In 1977, however, the tar level 

 was quietly Increased back to 2 mg. There las no evident change in 

 the cigarette package over this period. 



