TOBACCO ADS GO UP IN SMOKE IN EUROPEAN UNION
By Adnews Staff
The European Union has voted to ban most tobacco advertising and has given cigarette makers until October 2006 to end their sponsorships with major sports and cultural events. Beginning next October, governments within the 15-nation group will have three years to enact a ban on tobacco advertising except in stores that sell cigarettes. Cigarette advertising in those EU nations that still allow cigarette ads in newspapers and magazines will be exempted from the ban until October 2003. The EU ruling also bans indirect advertising of tobacco such as sales of apparel bearing the name of cigarette bans. Until last month, Britain opposed an advertising and sponsorship ban and said it would demand a permanent exemption for Formula One racing, which provides 50,000 jobs in Britain. In the end, Britain agreed to a temporary exemption. Germany and Austria lobbied against the ban.