Smoke Screen

To woo smokers, most U.S. cigarette makers long ago abandoned the naive idea that smoking was a mere pleasure. Instead, tobaccomen puffed up ad campaigns with testimonials from athletes and movie stars, and plugged such slogans as "less nicotine," "soothes the nerves," "aids digestion," "relieves fatigue," "never irritates the throat," and it's important to the "T-zone."

Last week, after six years of hearings and investigations, the Federal Trade Commission labeled such claims false and misleading. For example, said FTC, tests made by the Food & Drug Administration had proved that "the only physiological effect cigarette smoking can have upon digestion, if it has any at all, is harmful."

FTC ordered the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to stop using ads which said that Camel cigarettes aid digestion or relieve fatigue, and to stop using testimonials "which are not factually true." After checking 43 Camel testimonials ("I smoke Camels exclusively"), FTC learned that some of the people did not smoke at all, some could tell no difference between Camel and other brands, while still others could not read and did not even know what statements had been attributed to them.

The P. Lorillard Co. was told to stop advertising that Old Golds contain less nicotine, tars and resin and are less irritating to the throat than any other leading brand. Said FTC: "It is impossible [for a manufacturer] to maintain in the finished cigarettes, over any considerable period of time, a uniform level of nicotine content."

FTC said that it was also studying the ads of American Tobacco Co. (Lucky Strike), its subsidiary American Cigarette, & Cigar Co. (Pall Mall), and Philip Morris & Co., and might bring cease & desist orders against them. FTC investigators have found, for example, that despite claims of being "easier on the throat," king-size cigarettes (such as Pall Mall) actually contain "more tobacco and therefore more harmful substances" than are found in an ordinary cigarette.

The makers of Camels and Old Golds promptly replied to FTC. The ads, said the tobaccomen, had been discontinued six years ago when FTC first objected to them. In its current campaign, Old Golds was plainly trying to live down the days when it had boasted "Not a cough in a carload." Now its ads loftily proclaimed: "A treat instead of a treatment." Camel had also switched somewhat. It now stated that its "30-day mildness test" of smokers, supervised by "noted throat specialists," produced no evidence of throat irritation due to smoking Camels.

FTC conceded that there had been some ad changes. It said it had issued the cease & desist orders anyway, "to prevent the continuation or resumption" of such ads.

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