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TOBACCO BILLBOARDS REPLACED WITH PRO-HEALTH MESSAGES

More than 3,000 tobacco industry billboards that have promoted tobacco use will be replaced with an array of new messages discouraging tobacco use and promoting good health starting today.

Three HHS agencies--the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) --collaborated with the National Association of Attorneys General and all 37 individual states and the District of Columbia that have replacement billboards to organize this nationwide effort.

"The removal of the tobacco billboards that have loomed over the American landscape for decades represents another important step in preventing and reducing tobacco use," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala. "But while we celebrate this public health victory, we must not lose sight of the fact that it will take further action by public health officials and local communities to reduce the health effects attributed to tobacco use. That�s why the President is fighting to see that money from the tobacco settlement is spent on preventing youth smoking."

As part of the 1998 tobacco settlement signed by 46 states, the four major tobacco companies agreed to remove all advertising from outdoor and transit billboards across the nation. The remaining time on at least 3,000 of those billboard leases, valued at about $100 million, will be turned over to the states to post anti-tobacco messages that will range from discouraging the use of tobacco products by youth to warning the public of the dangers of secondhand smoke.

Although tobacco billboards have been declining as a source of revenue for the outdoor advertising industry (from 28 percent to 9 percent in the last 10 years), tobacco companies still spent about $300 million on billboards in 1996. That amount represents about 6 percent of the tobacco industry�s total annual marketing budget of more than $5 billion.

States will have access to the existing billboards until their leases expire, most of them in January 2000. Many are taking advantage of artwork from the FDA and participating states, and CDC, FDA and NCI are coordinating a national bulk printing to reduce costs to the states. Some states are using existing billboard artwork; others are developing new campaigns through their health departments or attorneys general offices. A highway billboard generally leases for $1,000 to $10,000 a month or even more depending on its size and location.

To view an assortment of available tobacco prevention billboards, please visit the CDC�s Office on Smoking and Health Web site at www.cdc.gov/tobacco.

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NOTE TO EDITORS:

For information on specific billboard events taking place throughout the country, call the CDC Office on Smoking and Health at 770-488-5493.

A satellite feed of b-roll footage showing selected replacement billboards will be aired on Thursday, April 22 and again on Friday, April 23 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time each day.

The footage lasts 6 1/2 minutes and will run twice back-to-back each day.

Coordinates: Thursday, April 22, 1999 Friday, April 23, 1999

1:00-1:15 P.M. (EDT) 1:00-1:15 P.M. (EDT)

C-Band GE2 C-Band Telstar 5

Transponder 18 Transponder 16

Note: HHS press releases are available on the World Wide Web at: www.dhhs.gov.