TOBACCO COMPANY AND CANCER SOCIETY CLASH AGAIN
By Adnews Staff
The Canadian Cancer Society yesterday filed a renewed complaint with the Tobacco Advertising Supervisory Committee against RJR-Macdonald, maintaining that the tobacco firm is still in violation of it's own self-imposed advertising code. In a June 4 decision, the Supervisory Committee gave RJR-Macdonald until June 19 to alter or remove a number of advertisements in the Ottawa-Hull region that violated the tobacco industry's voluntary code regarding legible health warnings. However, this week the Canadian Cancer Society re-surveyed the area and found that 27 advertisements for RJR-Macdonald products cited as offenders were still in violation of the code. In a release, Mark O'Neill, Chair of the National Public Issues Committee for the Canadian Cancer Society, says, "Not only has the industry infringed its own code, but after being ordered to correct the violations, RJR-Macdonald has not complied with the order. The industry appears to have no respect for its own already flawed process."
RJR-Macdonald spokesperson Mary Trudelle denies that the company is dragging it's feet. RJR-Macdonald applied for and received a 15-day extension to the Supervisory Committee's original deadline, she says, because the company needs the extra time to deal with all the offending ads. Trudelle told Adnews yesterday that two-thirds of the violations have already been fixed and the rest will be taken care of by July 16.
Rob Cunningham, policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, told Adnews that his organization was unaware of the extended deadline, and called it one more example of how the voluntary industry code is simply ineffective.