WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Public health leaders at the American Legacy Foundation® applauded today’s decision by the Delaware Supreme Court, which found that the foundation’s bold and effective youth smoking prevention advertising campaign, truth®, does not vilify or personally attack tobacco companies or their employees.

This decision was the result of an appeal made by Lorillard Tobacco Company, after the Delaware Chancery Court found in favor of the foundation in August 2005. This Supreme Court decision could finally mean the end of a contentious dispute that threatened to close the foundation’s doors and end the only effective national youth tobacco prevention campaign.

The truth® campaign, launched in February 2000, is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaign exposes the tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction and the health effects and social consequences of smoking – allowing teens to make informed choices about tobacco use by giving them the facts about the industry and its products.

Many truth® campaign ads are developed directly from actual tobacco industry documents for the purpose of providing teens with a window into cigarette advertising aimed at them. For the purposes of this litigation, Lorillard did not contest the veracity of the ads.

“Today’s decision means that the life-saving truth® will continue to prevent youth from starting to smoke,” said General William Sorrell, Attorney General of Vermont and the Chair of the American Legacy Foundation’s board of directors.

“The public health community and America’s youth have told us truth® works, and today the Delaware Supreme Court has given us a green light to continue our efforts against the nation’s number-one cause of preventable death.” In its ruling today, the Delaware Supreme Court reached the following conclusions:

"ALF has designed the ads to inform its target audience of manipulative marketing techniques because published research has demonstrated that these types of messages are the most effective ones for discouraging the rebellious, anti-authoritarian segment of young people who otherwise are the most likely segment of the population to begin smoking."

"We agree with Lorillard that the ads do refer to the tobacco companies or their executives and in one instance specifically to Lorillard. However, we conclude that Lorillard's appeal is without merit because the campaign's advertisements do not satisfy the plain meaning of 'vilification' or 'personal attacks'."

"The advertisements are not invidious, disparaging, offensive, belligerent, nor fiercely or severely critical. Nor are they denouncements that are both unfounded and abusive or slanderous.

The tone of the youth in the advertisements is usually expressly friendly or helpful, even if implicitly drawing attention to unflattering facts about past actions of tobacco companies or their employees. The youth's messages, and thus the advertisements themselves, do not qualify as personal attacks or vilifications."

In addition, the Court also stated that "Merely drawing attention to the past conduct of tobacco companies through innocuous and even helpful-sounding offers such as those heard in 'Shredder', 'Hypnosis', 'Lie Detector,' and 'Dog Walker', is not a personal attack or vilification prohibited by the MSA."

add one/ truth® will continue to save lives


“The court has provided reasonable definitions of vilification and personal attack, and the American Legacy Foundation will continue to follow these rules as we continue to tell American youth the facts about tobacco and the industry that markets its deadly products to them,” said foundation President and CEO Cheryl Healton, Dr. PH.

“This victory is a success for the nation’s youth and public health, when we consider that the tobacco industry spends approximately $41.5 million every day to market and promote cigarettes – comparable to what the American Legacy Foundation spends on the truth® campaign in one year. We are thrilled that the truth® campaign will continue to tell this story.”

While the case was between the foundation and Lorillard Tobacco Company, the other companies comprising “Big Tobacco” – Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and Brown & Williamson – attempted to weigh in their support of Lorillard through a late-in-the-game supporting brief. The court denied this brief because it was too late, but Healton said this act shows that “Big Tobacco” remains unified in their efforts to shutter the only independent national youth smoking prevention campaign proven to work.”

The American Legacy Foundation was established in 1999 as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five US territories and the tobacco industry. It serves as the national public health foundation devoted to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. The MSA provides restrictions for the foundation’s advertising that prohibit it from “vilification” or “personal attack.”

The foundation’s board of directors and staff follow a rigorous approval process to ensure compliance with the MSA. That process has resulted in groundbreaking advertising with behavior-changing resonance with the campaign’s 12- to 17-year-old target audience. The American Journal of Public Health published findings in March 2005 crediting truth® with 22 percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during the campaign’s first two years, 2000-2002. This translates to 300,000 fewer youth smokers in 2002 due to the truth® campaign.

Despite restrictions in the MSA that prohibit it from marketing or promoting its products to youth, the tobacco industry relies heavily on the youth market for its future, life-long customers. Statistics show that 80 percent of smokers try their first cigarette before the age of 18, and one-third to one-half go on to become regular smokers. Tobacco-related disease claims the lives of more than 400,000 Americans annually, making it the single largest cause of preventable death in the United States.

The foundation’s board of directors, which provides oversight to the foundation in the production of its advertising campaigns, lauded the decision as a public health victory. The foundation’s bipartisan board is comprised of two sitting governors, two state attorneys general and two state legislators, who in turn select five leaders in public health and tobacco control to guide the foundation in its programs.

The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use through grants, technical assistance and training, youth activism, strategic partnerships, counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns, research, public relations, and outreach to populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco.

The foundation’s national programs include Circle of Friends®, Great Start®, a Priority Populations Initiative, Streetheory® and truth®. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five US territories and the tobacco industry. Visit www.americanlegacy.org.