ANTI-SMOKERS ENLIST SHAREHOLDERS
By Adnews Staff
U.S. anti-smoking activists are taking their battle to publishing company annual meetings, where they attempting to persuade shareholders to pressure newspaper and magazine publishers into putting restrictions on the content of cigarette ads. Led by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, anti-tobacco types won a major victory last month when Knight-Ridder Inc. supported their proposals. Under guidelines drawn up by the activists, cartoon-like characters will not be allowed in cigarette ads because they could target kids. Also taboo are catchy phrases such as "alive with pleasure", used in ads for Lorillard's Newport cigarettes. Ads cannot give the impression that smoking leads to physical beauty or sexual attractiveness. Knight-Ridder is also recommending that its newspapers ask outside editorial suppliers to comply with the rules. One such supplier is Advance Publications Inc.'s weekend insert Parade magazine, which already prints a special cigarette-ad-free edition for the Seattle Times, which banned cigarette advertising several years ago. Now ICCR is going after Time Warner, which publishes People and Sports Illustrated.