DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: The tobacco industry's public image has taken quite a hit lately, and so have its profits, with cigarette giants forced to settle huge lawsuits. Well, then, today the tobacco industry found itself the butt of a TV spotlight spoof.</s>KELLEY (voice-over): The anti-tobacco ad was designed to look like an industry announcement.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Effective immediately, we're issuing a cigarette recall until we can sell a cigarette that poses no health risk</s>KELLEY: Then the punch line.</s>NARRATOR: April fool's.</s>KELLEY: The one-day ad campaign was paid for by the American Legacy Foundation, which is financed with tobacco industry money from a landmark anti-smoking case.</s>MITCH ZELLER, AMERICAN LEGACY FOUNDATION: The idea is to use April Fool's to call attention to the fact that a product that if you use as intended will cut your life short remains on the market despite all the known hazards associated with it.</s>KELLEY: The foundation was set up to try to curb teenage smoking as part of the $200 billion industry settlement with the states two years ago.</s>ZELLER: We have heard that the tobacco industry is disappointed with the nature of the ads that we're running, and we say that that's too bad.</s>KELLEY: The foundation placed the April Fool's ad on news broadcasts such as CNN and on entertainment programs like MTV with a younger audience, but some may have considered the ad too misleading. One of the broadcast networks has refused to run our ads and that would be</s>ABC. KELLEY: Once again proving the adage, where there is smoke, there is the fire of controversy.
Tobacco Industry Finds Itself Butt of Advertising Joke