Anti-smoking group to withdraw two ads
02/15/00
NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters) - An anti-smoking organisation said it would pull two of its harshest advertisements which have drawn strong criticism from the tobacco industry and which failed to show on some networks, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.
The American Legacy Foundation said it would pull one spot, which has been showing on USA Networks Inc.'s cable channel and another, which ran on Comedy Central, a joint venture between Time Warner Inc. and Viacom Inc.
The first shows body bags piling up outside the headquarters of the nation's largest cigarette maker, Philip Morris Cos. Inc. The second depicts a teenager with a lie-detector machine trying to interview a tobacco executive.
The ads were funded from the 1998 legal settlement between the tobacco industry and state governments.
General Electric Co.'s NBC and News Corp. Ltd's Fox have aired the ads, while CBS Corp. turned them down and Walt Disney Co. hasn't aired them yet.