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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Lois Capps issued the following statement regarding the decision of 11 leading Women’s Magazines to continue running dangerous and misleading tobacco ads, like those for Camel No. 9, targeting young women:
“I am extremely disappointed with the decision of these 11 women’s magazines to continue running ads promoting cigarette smoking,” said Capps. “These ads encourage a fatally addictive habit and are especially targeted at young women. It’s just flat out hypocritical to run stories about becoming more beautiful and healthy while promoting a dangerous product responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people a year.
“Two of the 11 magazines, Glamour and Vogue, responded that they will continue accepting these ads despite the horrible message the ads send to their young readers. Incredibly, Glamour and Vogue continue to assert that they can report and editorialize on the dangers of smoking while simultaneously accepting enticing advertisements for the very product they pretend to decry. W magazine indicated that it would like to discuss this issue further though it has not indicated whether or not it will continue to accept these ads. It would be nice to think that the other eight magazines -- Cosmopolitan, Elle, InStyle, Interview Magazine, Lucky, Marie Claire, Soap Opera Digest, and Us Weekly --have been shamed into silence over accepting ads targeting young women and promoting a deadly, and entirely preventable, habit. But the truth is that at least 10 of these magazines seem to care more about their bottom line profits than the health of their readers, young and old.
“My colleagues and I take very seriously our obligation to protect public health, including reducing smoking. In the coming weeks we will continue to highlight the hypocrisy of these magazines’ actions and pursue alternative means to encourage them to do the right thing.”
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Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.
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