Tobacco Industry Deceptions

The tobacco industry has long valued profit over the health and wellbeing of its customers. For decades, the industry has used deceitful strategies and tactics to hide the deadly effects of tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure. Despite assurances suggesting otherwise, their targeted marketing campaigns have deliberately encouraged youth to become addicts and tobacco industry deception, advertising, and product creation continues.

Public health advocates, community members, and elected officials continue to pass landmark legislation to limit the tobacco industry's power and decrease the impact of tobacco use in New York City. However, our work is far from over. The industry never sleeps and neither should we.

The Tobacco Timeline

6000 BC: Experts believe the tobacco plant, as we know it today, begins growing in the Americas.
1730: First American tobacco factories begun in Virginia.
1902: Philip Morris sets up a corporation on Broad Street in New York to sell its British brands, including Marlboro.
1940s: George Seldes exposes the suppression of tobacco stories by the nation’s press. As most tobacco-ad-laden newspapers refused to report the growing evidence of tobacco’s hazards.
1951: TV series “I Love Lucy” begins its run at 9:00 PM. It is sponsored by Philip Morris. The animated titles that open the show each week feature stick figures of Lucy and Desi climbing a giant pack of Philip Morris cigarettes.
1954: Marlboro Cowboy created for Philip Morris by ad agency Leo Burnett.
1964: First Surgeon General’s Report linking smoking and lung cancer: Smoking and Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service.
1965: Congress passes the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act requiring the following Surgeon General’s Warning on the side of cigarette packs: “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health.”
1968: Philip Morris introduces the Virginia Slims brand with its iconic "You've come a long way baby" ad campaign targeting women.
1971: Cigarette ads are taken off TV and radio as the Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969 takes effect.
1986: The 19th Surgeon General's report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking is published. This report officially acknowledged and emphasized the harmful effects of secondhand smoke for the first time.
1987: The RJ Reynolds tobacco company debuts the Joe Camel character in its U.S. advertisements. Evidence suggests that Joe Camel hooked millions of kids on Camel tobacco products.
1994: Seven tobacco company executives testify before Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) congressional committee that they do not believe nicotine is addictive. Internal documents show that tobacco companies had sound evidence for nearly three decades that tobacco use was additive and caused cancer.
1997: President Bill Clinton signs Executive Order 13058 mandating smoke-free government workplaces.
1998: Master Settlement Agreement provides unprecedented restrictions on cigarettes and on tobacco makers’ liability in lawsuits. Industry to spend $360 billion over 25 years, predominantly on anti-smoking campaigns, and start to include bold health warning on packs, curb advertising and face fines if youth smoking drops insufficiently.
1999: The U.S. Department of Justice announces it is suing the tobacco industry under the RICO statute – the same statute used to prosecute the Mob – claiming the tobacco industry engaged in a "coordinated campaign of fraud and deceit."
2002: NYC Smoke-Free Air Act is passed. The law protects workers against the harmful effects of secondhand smoke by making virtually all workplaces smoke-free.
2006: Judge Kessler releases her final ruling in the U.S. Department of Justice's federal suit against the tobacco companies. She finds that the tobacco industry had lied for 50 years and deceived the American public on health issues and marketing to children.
2009: The New York City Council passes a bill that outlaws sales of all flavored tobacco products.
2009: President Obama signs legislation granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco products. Tobacco products are now no longer exempt from basic oversight.
2010: The 20th Surgeon General's report on How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease is published. This report emphasizes that there is no safe level of secondhand smoke exposure.
2011: The New York City Council passes a bill that prohibits smoking in public parks, beaches, and pedestrian plazas.