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- BUSINESS, Page 84Business NotesCIGARETTESNot Out of the Picture Yet
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- Cigarette ads were banned from TV in 1971, but tobacco
- companies are finding new ways to get their names on the
- screen. Last week consumer-products giant Philip Morris, the
- world's largest cigarette maker, for the first time broadcast
- commercials designed to boost its corporate image. The ad, a
- tribute to the Bill of Rights, makes no overt reference to
- smoking. Even so, the Philip Morris name is almost synonymous
- with cigarettes, which bring in about 65% of the company's total
- profits.
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- Archrival R.J. Reynolds has been mailing out videocassettes
- containing commercials for its Now brand of cigarettes. The
- company says all the tapes were sent to smokers who favor
- Carlton, a competing brand, in an effort to win them over. But
- Matthew Myers, staff director of the Coalition on Smoking or
- Health, contends that RJR's "video loophole" could be used to
- circumvent Congress's original goal of shielding youngsters from
- tobacco ads. While the RJR tape is aimed at adults, Myers fears
- that such ads could creep into videocassettes of teen movies.
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