US Cigarette Sales Down, Marketing Budgets Up

WASHINGTON—Tobacco companies are not getting the same bang for their advertising dollars as they once did. Cigarette sales in the United States in 1999, the first year affected by the Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry and 46 states, dropped despite an increase in spending for advertising and promotions.

In its annual report on cigarette sales and advertising, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that domestic sales dropped to 411.3 billion cigarettes in 1999 from 458.5 billion in 1998, a decrease of 10.3%. The five largest cigarette companies hiked their spending for advertising and promotion in 1999 to $8.24 billion, an increase of 22.3% over 1998.