Democratic House, Senate Leaders Release New Report Identifying Hundreds of Tobacco, E-Cigarette Ads and Images in Magazines with High Teen Readership

Sep 24, 2014

Today Reps. Waxman, Dingell, Pallone, and DeGette, and Sens. Harkin, Rockefeller, Durbin, and Blumenthal released a new report that found that hundreds of tobacco advertisements and images glorifying smoking and e-cigarettes appear in magazines with large teen readerships.

The report finds that “tobacco companies continue to glamorize smoking in advertisements in magazines with large youth readership” and that “magazines frequently contain alluring images of smokers in their editorial content.” 

The report identified hundreds of advertisements, photos, and other images – many featuring alluring images of celebrities – glamorizing smoking and e-cigarette use.  These advertisements and images appeared most frequently in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, US Weekly, People, and Time.

Along with the report, the members of Congress wrote to the magazine publishers urging them to act to help reduce teen tobacco use.  The members wrote that “we hope you will reconsider your policies and voluntarily act to reduce cigarette, e-cigarette, and other tobacco product advertising and cut the number of editorial and news images of cigarette, e-cigarette, and other tobacco product in your policies.  Eliminating them will help reduce teen smoking, which is a goal we should all share.”

The report and letters were sent by Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman; Rep. John D. Dingell; Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr.; Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin; Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV; Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin; and Senator Richard Blumenthal.

The full report is available online here.

The letters to magazines are available here:  Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, US Weekly, People, and Time.

A sample of the advertisements and images found in the magazines are available here:  tobacco advertisements, e-cigarette advertisements, and magazine images.