Firms sue California over anti-smoking TV ads

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Two tobacco companies are suing California, saying the state's anti-smoking TV ads unfairly vilify their industry.

The counterattack follows a series of multibillion-dollar jury awards against beleaguered cigarette makers, which are trying to cope with a nationwide sales decline.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court late Tuesday by R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard, alleges California's ads unfairly influence potential jurors who may be asked to rule on tobacco-related lawsuits.

One ad shows children in a school yard catching cigarettes that are raining down on them, with a narrator saying: "We have to sell cigarettes to your children. That's why we sell cigarettes near your schools."

The ads make Californians prejudiced against tobacco companies before they even step into a courtroom, said Ellen Matthews, a spokeswoman for R.J. Reynolds, the nation's second-largest cigarette manufacturer.

"It's been an ad campaign for more than 10 years and it's infiltrated every segment of the media in California," she said.

In October, a Los Angeles jury ruled that Philip Morris USA should pay $28 billion to a 45-year smoker with lung cancer. A judge later slashed the award to $28 million.

Gov. Gray Davis said Wednesday that the state wouldn't back down from its aggressive media campaign.

"If big tobacco wants to fight, I say bring it on," Davis said. "They spend infinitely more than we do to get their message out. I don't think anyone should feel too sorry for them."

Anti-smoking organizations also criticized the lawsuit.

"Suing to stop the most successful tobacco prevention program in the nation is further proof that they're not serious in saying they don't want kids to smoke," said Bill Corr, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Since 1989, cigarette sales have dropped by nearly half in California.

The suit seeks an injunction of the anti-smoking ads in California, claiming they violate the tobacco companies' First Amendment rights.

In a case decided in 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a company should not be forced to pay for advertisements that hurt its sales.

The anti-smoking ads are funded through Proposition 99, a 25-cent-per-pack cigarette tax approved by voters in 1988.