Evening star., 1950-12-30
Court Upho|ds Ruling
AGAINST Old Gold Ad
Quoting Magazine
BY the Assoeiofed Press

RICHMOND, Dec. 30.-The
Court of Appeals yesterday Or
dered a cigarette company to cease
advertising that its product con-
tained less nicotine and was less
irritating to the throat than other
leading cigarette brands.
The courts action affirmed an
order of the Federal Trade Com
mission which banned as false and
misleading P. Lorillard Co.'s ad-
vertisements of Old Gold cigarettes
based on a Readers Digest survey.
The appeals court also affirmed
orders banning false advertising
by P. Lorillard of It's king size
Beech-Nut cigarettes, it's Sensa-
ton cigarettes and its Friends
smoking tobacco.
Fought on Digest Report.
The company did not contend
that the representations made
for Beech-Nuts, Sensations and
Friends were not established as
false by substantial evidence. But
it fought to retain the right to tell
the public that the magazines
survey had proved Old Colds less
irritating than other major brands
tested.
And on this score, the appeals
court bore down hardest. The
courts opinion, written by Chief
Judge John j. Parker, declared:
"The company relies upon the
truth of the advertisements COM
planned of. saying that they mere
ly state what had been truthfully
stated in an article in the Readers
Digest. An examination of the
advertisements, however, shows a
perversion Of the meaning of the
Readers Digest article which does
little credit to the company's ad-
vertising departmental perver-
sion which results in the use of
the truth in such a way as to cause
a reader to believe the exact oppo-
site of what was intended by the
writer of the article"
Nicotine Difference Small.
The opinion noted that the arti-
Gle in question pointed out that
the difference between nicotine
found in all major brands was
so small as to be entirely insignifi-
cant and utterly without meaning
so far as effect upon the smoker
was concerned"
There was no comment at the
Lorillard offices in New York. The
firm no longer uses the advertis-
ing based on the Readers Digest
survey and has discontinued
Beech-nut and Sensation cigar
cites.
The opinion continued:
"The company proceeded to ad-
vertise this difference as though
It had received a citation for pub
JIG service instead of a castigation
from the Readers Digest. The
fault with this advertising was, not
that 1t did not print all that the
Readers Digest article said, but
that it printed a small part thereof
in such a way as to create an en-
tirely false and misleading impress
sion, not only as to what was said
in the article, but also as to the
quality of the company's cigarettes
Deception Scored.
At another point in it's opinion,
the court reminded:
ITO tell less than the whole
truth is a well-known method of
deception: and he who deceives by
resorting to such method cannot
excuse the deception by relying
upon the truthfulness per Sc of
the partial truth by which it has
been accomplished" I
At another point the court
said that the applicable law in this
case was similar to the law relat-
ing to trademarks, and pointed
out:
''The law is not made for the
protection of experts, but for the
public-that vast multitude
which includes the ignorant. the
unthinking and the credulous,
who, in making purchases, do not
stop to analyze but are governed
by appearances and general i'm
pressions."