Today, they went farther than ever before and set the price for Big Tobacco's continued deceptive practices. The key industry defense that it had changed its ways since states began suing cigarette makers in 1994 continues to be contradicted by the industry's unrelenting efforts to woo young smokers, particularly through advertisements in magazines with high youth readership. Although embarrassing media attention has now caused some tobacco companies to pull some ads, for the most part the industry continues to pour billions of dollars into advertising campaigns. Those few ads that were pulled may have been retracted more to bolster a shaky legal defense rather than as a result of conscience or displays of moral responsibility. Similarly, the tobacco industry's public relations machine has been attempting to shape public opinion with increased publicity of its professed good works to various segments of the public, while hypocritically continuing to allow its products to kill and addict countless others.
Tobacco companies are masters of deception.
Luckily, this time when the smoke cleared, a six-member Florida jury wasn't fooled. Other juries involved in future class-action litigation should not be fooled either. The interests of health must no longer take a back seat to the millions of dollars this rogue industry spends on lobbying, public relations and marketing. Health statistics clearly prove that cigarette makers are nothing more than peddlers of addiction and death. Smoking-related illnesses kill more than 400,000 people per year, about half from cardiovascular disease.