Court ordered ‘corrective statements’ from major tobacco companies must appear on the cigarette manufacturers’ websites beginning 18 June after a federal court order for the online ads was issued by the U.S. District Court of Columbia, Winston-Salem Journal reported.

The next phase of the court-ordered campaign will see statements appear on the websites of cigarette manufacturers Philip Morris USA, ITG Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. from 18 June. The ads will also feature on brand websites for R.J. Reynolds’ Camel, Newport and Pall Mall brands, PM USA’s Marlboro and Parliament brands, and ITG Brands’ websites for Kool and Winston.
The statements are to be run indefinitely, Winston-Salem Journal reported.
Statements printed on pack inserts will be required by 21 November for two-week periods, three times a year, totalling 12 weeks over two years, according to the report.
The corrective statement campaign began in November with advertisements placed in major US newspapers and on television networks, as ordered by federal judge Gladys Kessler in 2006, who ruled manufacturers had acted to conceal the dangers of smoking.
The statements from tobacco companies alert consumers to the adverse health effects of smoking, the addictiveness of nicotine, the lack of health benefits from cigarette styles such as ‘low tar’ or ‘natural’, the health effects of second-hand smoke and the historical manipulation by manufacturers of cigarette design to get consumers hooked on smoking.