11 June 2001

Donald Clark
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Room 159
Washington, D.C. 20580

Dear Mr. Clark:

The Federal Trade Commission annual reports regarding advertising and sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco are of great value to the Missouri Department of Health. The reports are used to garner information regarding the tobacco industry for compiling newsletters, fact sheets, e-updates (monthly reports on hot topics regarding the tobacco industry), press releases, and other various reports that are disseminated to contractors, legislators, and the public through various venues.

A research analyst with the Missouri Department of Health’s Bureau of Health Promotion recently surveyed the staff regarding whether the FTC should continue to collect and publish data regarding cigarette and smokeless tobacco sales, advertising, and promotion. This unit oversees tobacco use prevention activities for the Department. The responses include:

  • the report is helpful to determine the venue of the tobacco industry’s advertising that helps us to plan counter-measures;
  • the data on the amount of advertising dollars is helpful to show the impact tobacco companies have in our state;
  • the data collected in the FTC report gives us guidance regarding ethnic and age groups that the tobacco industry is targeting; and
  • this is one way that the public has to monitor what tobacco companies are doing, how they are spending their money, and what direction they are headed into the future.

It was a consensus that annual reporting is sufficient. In the future, we would like the inclusion of tables and charts to the report, accessible in Access or Excel, that compare states to improve visual appeal and use for the report.

In conclusion our agency has found the reports to be very useful and we disseminate this information to a wide variety of Missouri organizations and individuals with whom we partner to carry out our tobacco use prevention efforts. We hope that the FTC continues to issue this report.

Sincerely,

Bernard R. Malone, M.P.A., Director
Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

BRM:lb

cc: Marianne Ronan
Charlotte Sims Higgins