In addition to the money, tobacco companies have agreed to ban billboard ads in Minnesota, marketing to kids and will no longer pass out P.R. freebies, such as t-shirts. These documents now offer a blueprint of sorts say some observers, for other states still planning to sue or settle with cigarette makers. And Shafali Puri of Fortune Magazine says it's put a lot of pressure on Big Tobacco. Here's what they say, here's what they show and look at the horrible studies they conducted. When they get a settlement those news items just stop.
Analysts say yes.
But one tobacco watcher pointed out tobacco companies could have avoided all the bad publicity, not to mention the release of the documents, if they had just settled four months ago. From the Boston Bureau at WGBH, this is Madge Kaplan for Marketplace. Washington editor John Dimsdale reports. Christine Varney, who's a former Federal Trade Commissioner and now handles Internet cases for the DC lawfirm of Hogan and Hartson, says the GTE lawsuit is a preemptive strike. They're clearly, I think, putting a little bit of pressure on the Department of Justice and signaling that if Justice doesn't find anything anticompetitive about this merger GTE will seek to enjoin the transaction itself.