Video: truth(R) Asks: 'Do You Have What it Takes?'

New Campaign Explores Decisions Made by the Tobacco Industry, Impact on
Americans

WASHINGTON, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Each and every day in America, 1,200 people
die from tobacco-related diseases -- from heart disease and cancers, to
emphysema and strokes. The latest advertising campaign from the truth(R) youth
smoking prevention campaign explores the kinds of decisions tobacco industry
executives undertake -- decisions that make for a successful, but deadly
business.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to:
http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/thetruth/38647/

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090601/NY24817 )

The ad campaign, called Do You Have What It Takes? asks real-life job-seekers
whether they would be willing to participate in the types of decisions and
situations that tobacco industry executives have made or encountered. The new
campaign rolls out at the end of May with television, print, cinema and online
advertisements, along with a new Web site and social-networking elements.

Despite the national recession, the tobacco industry remains a very profitable
and stable industry. However, even with economic hardship, recent research
studies find -- if given the choice -- many Americans would choose not to work
in the industry and already have a negative opinion of the tobacco industry. A
recent survey, conducted by the American Legacy Foundation and Harris
Interactive, revealed that:
-- 82% of teens aged 13-18 would not work for a tobacco company. (Legacy
Media Tracking Online, Winter 2008/2009)
-- 71% of them would like to see the cigarette companies go out of
business. (LMTO)
-- 75% of teens polled said they believed that cigarette companies lie.
(LMTO)
-- 76% think that cigarette companies should not be allowed to sell a
product that harms people. (LMTO)
-- 79% of teens agreed that cigarette companies want teens to believe
that
smoking is cool. (LMTO)
-- 71% of the teens surveyed felt that cigarette companies do not care
whether or not young people smoke. (LMTO)

The Legacy survey -- fielded online in late 2007 -- surveyed more than 1,800
teens across the country.

Additionally, according to a separate Harris Interactive poll: the tobacco
industry maintained its position from last year as one of the least reputable
industries in America. For 2009, the industry was joined at the bottom (11%)
in a tie with the troubled financial services industry. (Harris Interactive RQ
survey)

Along with the court of public opinion, a court of law recently weighed in on
the behavior of the tobacco industry. A May 22 decision by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a lower court decision
finding that the industry engaged in a pattern of widespread fraud and
deception -- with deadly health effects for the American public -- for a
period of more than 50 years. The three-judge panel found "the [lower] court
had before it sufficient evidence from which to conclude that Defendants'
executives, who directed the activities for the Defendant corporations and
their joint entities, knew about the negative health consequences of smoking,
the addictiveness and manipulation of nicotine, the harmfulness of secondhand
smoke and the concept of smoker compensation, which makes light cigarettes no
less harmful than regular cigarettes and possibly more."

Do You Have What it Takes? -- BACKGROUND and DETAILS
For its latest advertising campaign, truth(R) set up a mock recruiting office
in New York City and invited real-life job seekers to interview for
executive-level positions. Once in the interview, the candidates were
questioned by a trained improvisational actor posing as the recruiter. The
interactions were recorded by hidden cameras and, though many of the questions
were scripted, the reactions of the candidates were real.

The different television advertisements reveal people's reactions to being
asked how they would handle a variety of situations relating to the tobacco
industry. Some of the situations included:
-- whether they had a problem with selling a product that kills 1200
people
every day.
-- whether they thought changing the name of the company was a reasonable
way to avoid bad publicity.
-- if they could "plead the Fifth." The interviewer then informs
the job candidate that a tobacco industry executive pleaded the Fifth
Amendment 97 times during a deposition in 1997.
-- whether they had qualms about selling a product that kills someone
every
6.5 seconds.

Additional campaign elements include print, Web and cinema.

Visit the truth(R) pressroom of the American Legacy Foundation for full
details on the campaign.

Press Contact:
Stephen Winkler
the ad*itive
swinkler@ad-itive.com
215-525-1106

SOURCE American Legacy Foundation

Stephen Winkler of the ad*itive, for American Legacy Foundation,
+1-215-525-1106, swinkler@ad-itive.com