Anti-tobacco ads target 'deadly product'

This man's larynx was removed due to throat cancer after years of smoking. His message is part of the American Legacy Foundation's anti-tobacco ad campaign

By Wayne Drash
CNN National News Desk Editor

ATLANTA (CNN) -- The former smoker sits back in his hospital bed. He uses an amplifier attached to a hole in his throat to speak. His voice sounds more robot than human.

"The tobacco industry says things are changing. Just not their deadly addictive product," says the man, whose larynx was removed due to throat cancer after years of smoking.

His message is powerful and potent, and one that is being broadcast into millions of Americans' living rooms in an ad blitz by the American Legacy Foundation.

The nonprofit organization was formed as a result of the 1998 multi-state settlement with the tobacco industry, which stipulated the foundation would receive more than $1.5 billion through 2003 in creating the nation's largest public health initiative.

The foundation is using the ads to promote its goals: Working to prevent children from smoking, reducing non-smokers' exposure to second-hand smoke, and educating smokers about the health risks and trying to get them to quit.

"It is intended to be a wake-up call to America about the fact that 500,000 people die prematurely a year due to tobacco use in America -- 50,000 of those die from the tobacco use of others," said Dr. Cheryl Healton, the foundation's president and chief executive officer.

Healton said the ads also are meant to combat what she called the tobacco industry's "feel good campaign" to convince Americans "what wonderful citizens they are."

"Corporate citizen notwithstanding," said Healton, "a heck of a lot of Americans are dying prematurely due to this product."

The first ads appeared during the Super Bowl, followed by a flurry of appearances on network and cable programs, including CNN's "Larry King Live," CBS's "60 Minutes" and ABC's "World News Tonight."

The foundation is spending $6 million on the ads for the five-week span, said Healton.

So far, she said, the response has been enormous, with the foundation's Web site registering more than 100,000 hits in the first couple of days after the Super Bowl and thousands of congratulatory e-mails, with an occasional letter from an angry smoker.

For the tobacco industry, the foundation poses somewhat of a dilemma: It gives hundreds of millions of dollars a year to fund the foundation, while Big Tobacco is bearing the brunt of its message.

Rick Stoddard's wife, Marie, died of lung cancer at age 46

Philip Morris spokesman Brendan McCormick said the tobacco company supports the "goals of the American Legacy Foundation," but he added, "We are not going to comment on (their) specific tactics."

He said Philip Morris entered into the 1998 settlement, knowing full well the terms that created the foundation, freeing the way for the "single largest public health campaign" in the nation's history.

Big Tobacco settled with attorneys general in 46 states and five U.S. territories in 1998, agreeing to pay approximately $206 billion over 25 years for tobacco prevention efforts. The agreement required tobacco companies to take down all billboard advertising and advertising in sports arenas, to stop using cartoon characters to sell cigarettes and to make many of their internal documents available to the public.

In another of the foundation's ads, Rick Stoddard stares into the camera, his voice a depressed monotone. A picture of his wife, Marie, who died from lung cancer at age 46, flashes on the screen.

"Forty-six," says Stoddard as family photos of the couple and their young son appear intermittently. "I never thought of 23 as middle aged."

Having aggressive campaigns, Healton said, is a primary objective of the foundation, giving public health officials an "extraordinary opportunity" to better educate Americans about the risks of smoking and ultimately save lives.

"Tobacco use is the single most important preventable cause of death and disability in the United States. On some level, this foundation is the World Series of public health," said Healton, the former associate dean of School of Public Health at Columbia University.

A chain smoker for more than 30 years whose mother died at 62 from tobacco-related health problems, Healton said she understands the problem "up close and personal."

"We know how difficult it is and we don't blame the smoker, but we do want to have messages out there that are motivational and get people sort of going on the track of try and try again until they succeed (in quitting smoking)," Healton said.

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