FTC Releases Reports on 2012 Cigarette and Smokeless Tobacco Sales and Marketing Expenditures

The number of cigarettes sold to wholesalers and retailers in the United States declined from 273.6 billion in 2011 to 267.7 billion in 2012, according to the most recent Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report.

The amount spent on cigarette advertising and promotion by the largest cigarette companies in the United States rose from $8.37 billion in 2011 to $9.17 billion in 2012, due mainly to an increase in spending on price discounts (discounts paid to cigarette retailers or wholesalers in order to reduce the price of cigarettes to consumers). Spending on price discounts increased from $7.0 billion in 2011 to $7.8 billion in 2012. The price discounts category was the largest expenditure category in 2012, as it has been each year since 2002; in 2012, it accounted for 85.1 percent of industry spending.

The Commission has issued the Cigarette Report periodically since 1967 and the Smokeless Tobacco Report periodically since 1987.

According to the 2012 Smokeless Tobacco Report, spending on advertising and promotion by the major manufacturers of smokeless tobacco products in the United States, which had risen from $444.2 million in 2010 to $451.7 million in 2011, declined to $435.7 million in 2012. As with cigarettes, price discounts made up the largest spending category, totaling $212.1 million, or 48.7 percent of all spending in 2012.

Smokeless tobacco sales rose from 122.7 million pounds in 2011 to 125.5 million pounds in 2012. The total value of those sales increased from $2.94 billion in 2011 to $3.08 billion in 2012.

To read the full reports, click on Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report for 2012 and Federal Trade Commission Smokeless Tobacco Report for 2012.

The Commission vote to issue the reports was 5-0. (FTC File No. P114508)

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