Cigarette advertising has been banished from the airwaves and from billboards. But, The Boston Globe reports, tobacco signs abound in the city’s low-income, minority neighborhoods — in storefront windows and even on light poles and gas pumps.
A dozen years ago Massachusetts tried, unsuccessfully, to ban storefront tobacco ads near schools and playgrounds. Public health advocates in Boston and elsewhere, however, are hopeful that restrictions on the signs may be coming soon from the federal government.
They draw their optimism from new regulations that went into effect in June enabling the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco advertising. It is only a matter of how the FDA limits storefront tobacco marketing, not if, said Matthew Myers, president of the advocacy group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The tobacco industry, however, is certain to put up a fight. A representative of Philip Morris USA said the First Amendment protected the company’s right to communicate with customers through storefront ads.
Likewise, Philip Morris and major rivals Lorillard and R.J. Reynolds are making a similar argument in their lawsuit against New York City. They are fighting the city’s campaign to place anti-smoking warnings near cash registers in 11,500 establishments, The New York Times reports. Massachusetts officials proposed a similar measure this year, but put those plans on hold to watch for the outcome of the New York case.
