Subject:
             Tobacco Billboards - Sheetz
        Date:
             Thu, 09 Dec 1999 07:56:32 -0800
       From:
             "Robert B. Sklaroff, MD" <rsklaroff@home.com>
 Organization:
             @Home Network
 
 
 

Regional News - December 9, 1999
 

  Sheetz to ponder pulling cigarette signs

  By Joe Mandak
  TRIBUNE-REVIEW

  The executive committee for Sheetz convenience stores will meet Friday
to mull a request by the
  state attorney general that the stores stop using billboards to
advertise cigarettes.

  Although the attorney general's letter, which Sheetz received Tuesday
evening, doesn't specifically
  threaten legal action, it does imply that possibility, said Louie
Sheetz, executive vice president of
  marketing for the Altoona-based chain.

  Sheetz said the letter makes reference to a similar dispute last month
between Attorney General
  Mike Fisher and Wawa Food Markets, a Delaware chain that operates
several stores in the
  Philadelphia area.

  Sheetz declined to provide a copy of the letter to the Tribune-Review,
but said that it states, in part:
  "We had contemplated filing suit over the issue and are pleased that
Wawa chose to act
  responsibly."

  "That's obviously put in (the letter) as a bit of a threat, but that's
not surprising," Sheetz said.

  The letter, which Sheetz described as "very cordial," goes on to say
that Fisher hopes Sheetz
  officials will follow Wawa's lead and pull their billboards.

  The billboards in question are yellow with plain black lettering that
reads:

  "Leading brand cigarette packs as low as $2.34 plus tax. Limited time
at participating stores. Any
  cheaper, we'd be in jail. Sheetz."

  Wawa officials pulled similar billboards because Fisher's office
claimed that the signs violated
  settlement terms of a nationwide lawsuit against tobacco
manufacturers.

  In November 1998, Big Tobacco settled a lawsuit brought by 46 states
citing marketing practices
  designed to entice people, including children, to smoke.

  Fisher helped draft a settlement under which Pennsylvania would
receive $11.3 billion out of the
  total $206 billion settlement over 25 years.

  But the settlement also required tobacco companies to stop advertising
their products via billboards,
  among other means.

  Fisher targeted Wawa and Sheetz because they advertised cigarettes on
billboards after the
  settlement - even though the retailers weren't targeted in the lawsuit
and weren't a party to the
  settlement talks.

  Fisher press secretary Sean Connolly said his boss is entitled to go
after retailers' billboards because
  "tobacco companies are required to take `commercially reasonable'
steps to make sure retailers
  don't advertise their products" under the settlement.

  Simply put, Fisher believes that means Big Tobacco is supposed to lean
on retailers until they agree
  not to advertise cigarettes.

  "The language in the settlement was purposely ambiguous," Connolly
said. "The goal under the
  national settlement was to take down the billboards so that children
aren't exposed to this
  advertising."

  Connolly said advertisers and retailers weren't targeted in the
tobacco lawsuit, in part, because there
  were "First Amendment" questions about whether they could legally be
forced to stop advertising a
  product they sell legally.

  "Why don't we sue the retailers? We are going to voluntarily ask the
retailers to take down these
  billboards," Connolly said.

  "That's why this (tobacco lawsuit) agreement was so effective, because
the industry as a whole
  agreed that these billboards appealed to children and agreed under the
settlement to remove them,"
  Connolly said.

  "No longer is there a Joe Camel on a billboard across from a school."

  But if the attorney general's office wasn't sure that targeting the
billboards themselves was legal, why
  did it seek to ban them indirectly through the tobacco settlement?

  "Could we have gotten that (result) in another way? Maybe not. But
this was an important health
  initiative and was important enough to fight for," Connolly said.

  However, Connolly said Fisher's office isn't sure what it can do if
Sheetz or other retailers buck their
  request for "voluntary" compliance on the billboard issue.

  "Whether we can take enforcement action remains a question, and so far
we haven't made that
  determination," Connolly said.

  Sheetz said he believes it is OK for the convenience store chain to
continue using cigarette
  billboards, but stopped short of saying how the company will respond
to Fisher's letter, which it
  probably will do on Monday.

  "We certainly feel we have every right to market these things the ways
we've been marketing them.
  But it depends on what the push-back is from these guys" as to what
Sheetz will ultimately decide to
  do, Sheetz said.

  "We look at it as, `Hey, 25 percent of our customers are adult smokers
and they expect us to have
  their brand, and to have it in stock 24 hours a day and to have good
prices on them.

  "I can't anticipate what the final decision's going to be, but I'll
put it this way: Our first thought is to
  continue to go to market the way we've been going to market," Sheetz
said.

  "Now, how that's going to manifest itself in a response to the
attorney general remains to be seen."