Scarcnet News Summaries (Advocacy Institute)
Settlement Will Have Major Impact On Billboard Companies
Length: pages
Abstract
Under the national tobacco settlement, all billboards must be free of tobacco advertising by April 22, 1999.The tobacco industry is the third-largest user of billboards and accounts for $200 million, or about nine percent, of the billboard business for outdoor advertising firms. Since pulling their ads from the airwaves in 1971, tobacco companies have generally secured the biggest billboards in the best locations. Stephen Freitas, vice president of marketing at Eller Media in Phoenix, Arizona, said, "They have been on those boards for 25 years, non-stop. It becomes part of the urban landscape." While the tobacco industry has found new ways to market cigarettes, billboard companies have had to find replacement business. In Mississippi, the largest outdoor advertising company lost six percent of its annual revenue when tobacco ads were pulled, and in only a year has made up half of that business.
Source: Richard Wolf, "Tobacco's Last Stands," USA TODAY, December 28, 1998, p. A1.