The Marlboro Man’s been benched.
That’s the deal cut Tuesday between Philip Morris and the Justice Department, which had threatened to sue the tobacco maker for using billboards at sporting events to get television exposure.
Television advertising of cigarettes has been banned by law since 1971, but the Justice Department said “the tobacco company used strategically placed signs at professional sports stadiums to get around the ban on cigarette advertising on television.”
Philip Morris wasn’t admitting to any end runs. Cigarette signs are “intended to reach the large number of adult smokers who attend sporting events. The television pickup these ads may have received in the past was incidental,” the company said.
Under the agreement announced Tuesday, Philip Morris cannot advertise next to playing fields or in areas likely to appear on television during baseball, basketball, football and hockey games.
The company will be able to advertise in the stadiums but out of view of most television coverage.
Frank Hunger, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, would not rule out action against other companies.
Hunger said the case began when fans complained about a cigarette sign at Madison Square Garden at a basketball tournament last year. Justice Department investigators obtained a copy of an advertising agreement between the stadium and Philip Morris and information that detailed how much TV time the Marlboro sign received.
The sign was removed during negotiations over the settlement.
“The department believed there were obvious violations of the advertising ban, some of them flagrant,” Hunger said.
Investigators found that cigarette signs appeared in broadcasts of 14 baseball clubs and 14 football teams, including those in New Orleans, San Francisco and Atlanta. Chicago was not among the 14.