FTC Releases Reports on 2013 Cigarette and Smokeless Tobacco Sales and Marketing Expenditures

The number of cigarettes sold by the largest cigarette companies in the United States to wholesalers and retailers in the U.S. declined from 267.7 billion in 2012 to 256.7 billion in 2013, according to the most recent Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report.

The amount spent on cigarette advertising and promotion decreased from $9.17 billion in 2012 to $8.95 billion in 2013, due mainly to a decrease 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 decreased from $7.8 billion in 2012 to $7.64 billion in 2013. The price discounts category was the largest expenditure category in 2013, as it has been each year since 2002; in 2013, it accounted for 85.4 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 2013 Smokeless Tobacco Report, spending on advertising and promotion by the major manufacturers of smokeless tobacco products in the U.S., which had decreased from $452 million in 2011 to $435.9 million in 2012, increased to $503.2 million in 2013. As with cigarettes, price discounts made up the largest spending category, totaling $282.7 million – or 56.2 percent of all spending in 2013.

Smokeless tobacco sales rose from 125.5 million pounds in 2012 to 128.0 million pounds in 2013. The revenue from those sales increased from $3.08 billion in 2012 to $3.26 billion in 2013.

The Commission vote to issue the reports was 4-0. (FTC File No. P114508)

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