An advertisement in Rolling Stone magazine three weeks ago led Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler to file a lawsuit Tuesday against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for $2.5 million seeking to stop the tobacco giant from further distribution of the cartoons and a related CD.
The lawsuit also asked the court to order RJR to pay a sanction of $100 for each magazine and CD distributed in Maryland. Gansler also wanted the firm to place full-page anti-smoking ads in Rolling Stone.
Gansler, along with the attorneys general of Pennsylvania, New York and five other states, said the ads violate RJR?s 1998 agreement not to use cartoons and merchandise to advertise to young people.
“Nine years after we thought we had seen an end to the predatory marketing practices of the old days, Reynolds continues to use the deadly charm of cartoons and merchandise to entice new customers,” Gansler said in a statement. “Reynolds is doing exactly what it agreed not to do.”
An RJR spokesman in Winston-Salem, N.C., told The Associated Press that the company was unaware that its advertising for a Web site would be surrounded by illustrations.
“Had we been aware of the graphics prepared by Rolling Stone, we would not have advertised adjacent to the gatefold,” said David Howard, speaking for the company.
Rolling Stone publisher Ray Chelstowski said the tobacco company had not seen the special section that ran in the 40th-anniversary section of the magazine.
Last week,the Winston-Salem Journal reported that R.J. Reynolds was pulling all its print advertising next year, but a company representative denied it was related to the Rolling Stone flap. In October, representatives of Gansler and the other attorneys general met with the company to “express concern” about its print ads, Gansler?s statement said.
Anti-smoking groups, such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, have been pressuring the attorneys general to go after the tobacco companies for allegedly violating the master settlement agreement made in 1998 between the industry and 46 states. The companies had agreed to pay the states more than $200 billion over 25 years, in addition to stopping advertising and promotion of cigarette smoking to youth.
