Parents and Family Circle magazines routinely include advertisements from Lorillard Tobacco Company’s “Real Parents. Real Answers.” campaign.  Tobacco companies use these so-called “youth prevention” ads to manipulate people into thinking they are trying to prevent youth smoking when in reality they are only trying to improve their image so that more people – specifically young people – trust them and buy more products.  The ads in these magazines are in fact NOT reliable prevention materials and tobacco companies should not be promoted as a trusted source. Even though these ads may appear to promote tobacco prevention, they have actually been proven to help tobacco companies sell more products, particularly to youth. We’ve contacted Meredith Corporation executives (the parent company of Parents and Family Circle), executed a letter writing campaign, conducted social media outreach, teamed up with statewide organizations, and contacted the media, but Meredith Corporation just doesn’t get it. In fact, they responded that the company believes “the anti-smoking content contained in the ads is appropriate for Parents. Furthermore, the Lorillard name only appears in small type at the bottom, so it is not promoting its brands in any way. For those reasons, we plan to continue running these ads.”

Write to Meredith Corporation and tell them to stop accepting tobacco companies' advertising dollars for their family-focused magazines.