ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.</s>JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: Big Tobacco's big deal with the states will be a done deal. That's when all 46 states involved will sign the landmark settlement. The decision to accept the tobacco industry's offer was unanimous, as CNN's Allan Dodds Frank reports.</s>ALLAN DODDS FRANK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The state attorneys general lined up to accept the deal.</s>JEFF MODISETT, INDIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL: This is a good deal for the state of Indiana. Our responsibility in weighing the options that we have right now is to do what is best, first of all, for the children of Indiana, and secondly, what is best for the tax payers.</s>FRANK: Across the country, each of the 46 states that had not already settled found the promise of sharing $206 billion spread over 25 years too rich to let slip away.</s>FRANK KELLY, MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: As in all public affairs, no solution is perfect. But I am convinced to a moral certainty that I must execute this settlement about which I have been speaking for and on behalf of the people of the state of Michigan.</s>FRANK: The settlement eliminates tobacco billboards, cartoon characters such as Joe Camel, and promotional gifts. But the Marlboro Man and other human images can continue. The deal puts fewer restrictions on Big Tobacco than those proposed in the federal and state settlement Congress defeated last spring. Philip Morris, RJR Nabisco, Loews and BAT agreed to the settlement. At the last minute, they also allowed the Brook Group, the smallest company in the industry, to join in.
CNN 20: Smoking Settlement, November 20, 1998