Tobacco Spending on Advertising a Fraction of What it Once Was

Source from:  The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area June 25, 2007 06/26/2007

Cigarette companies still spend an enormous amount of money on marketing, but they're not spending very much of it on advertising any more. According to Advertising Age, a trade journal, in government data indicates that in 2005 cigarette makers spent just $56 million on advertising, about 6 percent of the $932 million they spent in 1985, when tobacco advertising peaked. Ad Age's 2006 list of Leading National Advertisers doesn't include any tobacco companies, the first time that's happened since the magazine started the report in 1956. But Big Tobacco, including Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) and Greensboro-based Lorillard Inc. (NYSE: CG) as well the No. 1 cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, still spend big on marketing. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the tobacco industry spent $13.1 billion on advertising and promotions in 2005. Most of that money is spent inside stores for things like consumer price discounts. Enditem