Ad Groups Prepare to Fight Feds

A coalition of advertising lobby groups will write Attorney General John Ashcroft, protesting the Justice Department’s plan to broaden marketing restrictions if the government wins its lawsuit against tobacco companies.

The Freedom to Advertise Coalition, which includes the Association of National Advertisers, the American Advertising Federation and the American Association of Advertising Agencies, calls the plan—outlined in a pretrial document filed in December—”draconian.” The letter will be sent either this week or next and is expected to point out that some of the proposed moves are unconstitutional.

Among the changes the Justice Department wants: the restriction of all tobacco ads to black and white; the extension of the warning label in each print ad to cover 50 percent of the ad; the allowance of graphic illustrations—such as an image of a diseased lung—to appear on warning labels; and the required disclosure of all past and current marketing plans from tobacco companies and...