In US multilingual tobacco ad warning (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Multilingual tobacco warning 
Elizabeth Fernandez OF THE EXAMINER STAFF                                     

 June 28, 1998 

FTC changes policy for ethnic audiences

The discrepancy was too glaring to be mere oversight.  Cigarette ads aimed
at ethnic communities were printed in Vietnamese or Chinese or Spanish -
with one exception. The surgeon general's warning was in English.

"It was deliberate, it was part of a continuing effort to mislead and
deceive the public, and to recruit new smokers," says health worker Anh Le,
a Vietnamese American. 

Two years ago, Le launched a local grass-roots effort to force tobacco
companies to change this advertising practice. His ammunition: letters sent
by health officials and Asian American youngsters urging an advertising
crackdown by the Federal Trade Commission. 

On Friday, they won. The FTC issued a policy  amendment requiring
advertising disclosures, such as the surgeon general's warning, be in the
language of the ad's target audience. 

"This will affect ethnic communities across the country," says an exultant
Le, who works with the Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project at
UC-San Francisco. "People are puffing away - if they are literate only in
their native language, they don't know the dangers. They have been
deliberately kept in the dark." 

According to the notice published Friday in the Federal Register, the FTC
said some advertisers had "subverted" the original intent of a 1973 mandate
for "clear and conspicuous disclosures" in foreign language ads. 

"The FTC is clarifying the original intent . . . that all American
consumers, regardless of the language they speak, have access to important
information regarding the products they purchase," said the FTC. 

"Common-sense policy" 

The amendment, effective immediately, applies not only to the surgeon
general's warning but to other required disclosures, such as vehicle leasing
ads or home mortgage ads, says Matthew Gold, San Francisco-based FTC staff
lawyer. 

"People are on notice that this is how the commission will interpret the
law," Gold says. "Its goal is to ensure that whatever is being disclosed in
the ad be effectively communicated to the audience.  It's a common-sense
policy - if you are talking to Chinese people, you talk in Chinese." 

The FTC's amendment applies not only to advertisements in magazines and
newspapers, but to any sales material, including posters, videotapes or
store awnings. 

"This will reduce smoking habits. People will think twice about smoking with
the warning in their language," says Philip Nguyen, executive director of
the Southeast Community Center in San Francisco and San Jose. 

The campaign to change the ads was spearheaded by the local Vietnamese
American community in large measure because of the high incidence of smokers
among male Vietnamese - estimated to be 35 percent, about 1.5 times that of
the general population, according to the Vietnamese
Community Health Promotion Project. 

"I've had people in my clinic with lung infections . . . they don't know
that smoking could affect their health," says Dr. Kim Phung Nguyen, a San
Francisco pediatrician and member of the Vietnamese Tobacco-Free Community
Task Force. 

"The cigarette ads are everywhere - the ad is beautiful, slick, the people
in them have beautiful teeth," she says. "The ad is in Vietnamese but the
warning is in English. People don't have any clue what it means." 

A popular smoke 

The chief culprit, Le said, is the highly popular "555" cigarette. The brand
is marketed in the U.S. by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., and in Vietnam
and other countries by B & W's corporate parent, B.A.T. Industries. 

The company did not immediately return calls seeking comment. 

Walker Merryman, vice president of the Tobacco Institute, an industry
organization based in Washington, D.C., says he was unaware of the FTC
action, but adds, "I'm confident that all our member companies will be in
compliance with all the applicable statutes and regulations." 

Such assurances mean little to Anh Le.  "This will require close
monitoring," he says. "The government will have to make sure it puts teeth
in the FTC ruling, we can't count on the tobacco industry adhering to the
ruling. This shows we don't have access to deep pockets but we can
accomplish big results." 

>From her perspective, Oakland high school freshman Linh Dang, 15, simply
hopes her little brother won't start smoking. 

"My father smokes, I'm afraid my brother will follow in his steps," says
Dang, who along with other teens at the East Bay Asian Youth Center, took
part in the campaign of letter writing to the FTC. "With the warning in
different languages, I think it will help." 

©1998 San Francisco Examiner   Page A 1