THE WAR ON TOBACCO.

CIGARETTE MAKERS ARE NOW UNDER ATTACK ON SEVERAL FRONTS

When Florida officials needed ideas for an antismoking campaign aimed at teenagers, they sought ideas from an unusual source: teenagers themselves.

They asked teens to create antismoking ads as effective as the enticing cigarette ads on billboards and in glossy magazines. The kids met the challenge with a series of in-your-face TV commercials. In one hard-hitting spot, two teens drive up to a Philip Morris cigarette plant in search of the Marlboro Man. "He passed away some time ago," the guard tells them.

The ad campaign, now on the air in Florida, represents one front of what has become a many-sided war against cigarette companies. Today, the tobacco industry is under attack not just on the tube, but in state legislatures and in the courts--including the Supreme Court. The Court will decide whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should be allowed to regulate tobacco like a drug. If the Court rules in favor of the FDA, it would give a government agency power--for the first time--over the tobacco industry.

The FDA wants the authority to set rules for how tobacco is advertised and sold, especially to young people. To make them less attractive to kids, the agency wants to strip the color from cigarette ads on billboards and in youth-oriented magazines, making the ads black and white. The FDA also proposes rules that would ban cigarette vending machines and outdoor advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds.

Antismoking activists contend that the case is critical because young people are especially susceptible to advertising. Studies show that teens are more likely than adults to buy the most advertised brands. Also, kids who own tobacco-company promotional items, such as hats or T-shirts, are four times more likely than other kids to smoke.

Until the FDA acted, says Matthew Myers, executive vice president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, "tobacco was both this nation's most dangerous product and its least-regulated product." If the Supreme Court upholds the FDA regulations, he says, "the tobacco industry will be required to play by the same rules and standards as all other manufacturers."

TOBACCO RESPONDS

Tobacco companies argue that the FDA has no authority over cigarettes. As long as they are sold without medical claims, the industry says, they are not legally a drug. The proposed restrictions on advertising, the companies contend, violate their First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech. The industry also insists that it does not market to kids.

Ellen Merlo, senior vice president of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker, says her company already has an antismoking campaign aimed at minors and a training program to encourage retailers to check IDs of young people.

But, she adds, "We also will defend our right to market to adults who choose to smoke."

The Court is expected to rule on the case by next spring.

Meanwhile, the campaign against teen smoking has chalked up a victory in Florida, where the antismoking campaign has contributed to a 9-percent drop in smoking among high school students--the biggest drop anywhere in 20 years, according to a Florida official.

The money for programs like the one in Florida comes from a $246 billion legal settlement between the tobacco companies and all 50 states in 1997. The states had sued the tobacco companies to recover the health-care costs caused by smoking-related illnesses, which kill 430,000 Americans each year.

Despite the apparent success of Florida's antismoking campaign, however, so far just 11 other states are using their share of the settlement for similar efforts. Antismoking activists are fighting to persuade the states to use the money as Florida did.

"Here's $246 billion," says Joel Spivak of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, "and we're saying if we could just have 25 percent of it spent on tobacco prevention, we could make a huge dent in smoking."

Besides the state settlements, tobacco companies have taken another kind of hit in the courts recently. Ex-smokers and their families have sued tobacco companies for damages, claiming that cigarettes made them sick. In a few cases they have won large awards.

One case has an eerie parallel to one of the Florida ads. The case involves an actor who started smoking at 12 and died of lung cancer in 1995. His widow has filed a lawsuit against Philip Morris. The actor, David McLean, was the original Marlboro Man.

SNAPSHOT: THE SUPREME COURT

WHAT: The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land and the final authority on all questions involving the Constitution and federal law.

WHO: The Court is made up of one Chief Justice (currently William Rehnquist) and eight Associate Justices.

RULINGS: A Court decision requires a majority opinion, signed by at least five Justices. A Justice who disagrees may write a dissenting opinion.

GETTING THERE: Most cases reach the Court when a ruling by a lower court is appealed. Last year, 8,083 cases reached the Court; the Court ruled on only 90 of them. The Court usually accepts only cases that raise important legal questions. If the Court refuses to take a case, the lower-court ruling stands.

For more information on teen smoking, the Supreme Court case, and links to Web sites on smoking, visit: www.nytimes.com/upfront