Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: 'Smokeout' draws millions of quitters Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 15:30:30 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD 'Smokeout' draws millions of quitters \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS Anti-tobacco crusaders staged a mock trial in California, handed out symbolic cold turkeys in Georgia and persuaded a New York City eatery to remove its vintage cigarette machine - "a diner icon" - as the nation observed the Great American Smokeout. The American Cancer Society set the tone for the 16th annual event yesterday by urging the nation's 50 million smokers to "Take a vacation from smoking . . . and change your life." The society predicted 17 million would try to kick the habit for 24 hours. Across the nation, the anti-smoking effort involved schools, businesses, officials, public interest groups and advertising gimmicks. "Be like Bill - don't inhale," said billboards in Arkansas, a play on the oft-lampooned campaign remark by favorite son and President-elect Bill Clinton that he had tried marijuana but hadn't inhaled. In Marietta, Ga., Cobb County Sheriff Bill Hutson, a former three-pack-a-day smoker, and five others were inducted into the cancer society's "Quitters Hall of Fame." Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. offered frozen turkeys to employees who went smoke-free for 24 hours. In Latonia, Ky., pupils wrote letters urging relatives and friends to quit for the day. A chain of Connecticut food stores offered to trade turkey sandwiches for half-used packs of cigarettes. New York City's consumer affairs commissioner rebuked DC Comics for a Marlboro cigarette billboard depicted in the background of a strip in its November "Batman" comic book. "Comic books are the last place that such commercial child abuse should occur," said Commissioner Mark Green. Martha Thomases, spokeswoman for DC Comics, said the company is "adamant" against cigarette ads but considers such things essential to depicting realistic urban backdrops. Members of the New York Public Interest Group showed up at Manhattan's Good Diner to urge owners to get rid of the vending machine inside the front door. Chris Meyer, a lawyer for the organization, said dozens of restaurants ignore a 2-year-old law barring tobacco vending machines where minors have access. Sheldon Werdiger, a partner in the restaurant, whose decor seeks to evoke the blue-collar beanery of bygone days, said he would remove the machine. "The only reason we have it is to add to the image - it's a sort of diner icon," Mr. Werdiger said. On Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, Jim Purol, alias "Jim Mouth," set what he claimed was a world record by smoking 154 cigarettes at once. "I'm doing this to show the ridiculous side of smoking," Mr. Purol said. In a mock trial staged by Los Angeles seventh-graders, a jury found the characters "Marlboro Man," "Joe Camel" and "Virginia Slims" "glaringly and inexcusably guilty" of false advertising aimed at youth and women. A real trial continued in Belleville, Ill., where Charles Kueper, a truck driver diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, is suing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and the Tobacco Institute, a trade association, on grounds that they conspired in misleading ads to minimize the hazards of smoking. Cigarette sales, meanwhile, remain strong, Tobacco Institute spokesman Thomas Lauria said in Washington. He said that while the market has declined slightly each year since 1965, the six largest U.S. tobacco companies had domestic sales of $43.8 billion in 1991, up $2.6 billion from the year before. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM