Pa. appellate court sides with R.J. Reynolds on appeal of tobacco advertising lawsuit

Tobacco company wins Pa. appeal over magazine ad

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania appellate court Tuesday sided with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in a state lawsuit over advertising that the company ran in Rolling Stone magazine in 2007.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the state Commonwealth Court overturned a Philadelphia judge who ordered Reynolds to pay a $302,000 fine or pay for an anti-smoking ad in a Pennsylvania edition of the magazine.

At issue was a fold-out Camel cigarette ad promoting independent record labels that was placed next to illustrations produced by the magazine in November 2007.

Pennsylvania was one of nine states that sued Reynolds for allegedly violating the national tobacco settlement’s ban on advertising with cartoons, designed to prevent the tobacco industry from pitching to minors.

The Commonwealth Court concludes that the Reynolds ad contained no cartoons and Reynolds had no control over the placement of the magazine’s illustrations.

A Reynolds spokeswoman said the company was pleased by the decision.

“It’s particularly gratifying in that the court … ruled in the company’s favor on both of the key issues in the case: whether the content of the ad in question violated the company’s Consent Decree with the state, and whether the magazine’s editorial content adjacent to the ad was controlled by R.J. Reynolds,” said Maura Payne.

State Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office was weighing a possible appeal to the state Supreme Court, spokesman Nils Frederiksen said.