R. J. Reynolds Not Advertising In Print Media In 2008

Add tobacco giant R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to the list of advertisers leaving the embattled print realm. On Tuesday a spokesperson for the second-largest tobacco company told The Winston-Salem Journal that they would not run any advertising in 2008 in newspapers and consumer magazines. From The New York Times:

”The most recent figures, for 2005, show that print advertising accounted for about $46.4 million of the $13.1 billion spent on cigarette marketing that year, divided between newspapers (about $1.6 million) and magazines (about $44.8 million).

”The decreasing importance of consumer print advertising was demonstrated in a comparison with the F.T.C. data from the previous year. In 2004, when the cigarette makers spent $14.1 billion on marketing, print advertising accounted for roughly $100.6 million of the total — $4.9 million in newspapers and $95.7 million in magazines.”

The announcement comes on the heels of intense criticism over a four-page cartoon foldout for Camel No. 9 ads that appeared in the Nov. 15 issue of Rolling Stone.

(image via clipart)

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