U.S. tobacco companies’ appeal to delay court-ordered advertising blitz

By David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumers will likely have to wait until 2015 or later to see a court-ordered advertising blitz detailing tobacco companies’ deception, a lag of nine years after the original ruling, a court heard on Wednesday. Tobacco lawyers said at the hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that they planned to push forward with an appeal about the wording of the ads, even after they struck an agreement this month with the Justice Department and anti-smoking advocates about what the ad campaign would look like in newspapers and on television. The companies have fought the lawsuit since President Bill Clinton’s Justice Department filed it in 1999, alleging the cigarette makers engaged in racketeering by hiding from the public the health consequences of tobacco use. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said Wednesday the latest appeal would likely delay the ads until 2015 or later.