The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: This panel includes three presentations. The first will focus on industry revenue from youth smoking, with focus on the impact of recent declines in youth smoking. The second provides new information on the impact of Legacy's truth® campaign and Philip Morris' “Think. Don't Smoke” (TDS) campaign, and the relationship between the two. The third describes the litigation brought by Lorillard Tobacco Company against American Legacy Foundation in regard to truth® campaign advertising.

Methods: The industry revenue study reports the amount of tobacco industry revenue generated by youth smoking, and projects the revenue that will be generated by two youth cohorts over the course of their lifetimes. The media campaign study uses survey data and logistic regression to test whether recall of “truth” and “TDS” is associated with odds of agreeing or disagreeing with truth-related belief/attitude items and with intention to smoke in the future. The final presentation is based on the experience of the Legacy Foundation.

Results: Cigarette price increases from 1997 to 2002 have resulted in greater revenue for the tobacco industry, despite declines in youth smoking prevalence. The authors project that, over the course of their lives, the 2002 high school senior class will generate $22.9 billion in tobacco industry revenue. The media campaign study suggests that the on-air presence of the TDS campaign reduced the strength of beliefs and attitudes associated with the truth® campaign. Thus far, Lorillard Tobacco Company has not been able to end the truth® campaign through litigation; this presentation will describe why.