Just Blowing Smoke?

An anti-smoking group is denouncing a billboard company’s decision to reject an R.J. Reynolds advertisement.

Sound odd?

That’s because the ad was from R.J. Reynolds, the 80-year-old retired lawyer from Spokane, not the tobacco company.

The Tobacco Free Coalition developed the message, “R.J. Reynolds says: Smoking Kills. Don’t buy cigarettes.” It features Reynolds, who kicked a two-pack-a-day habit in the 1950s and promised his two children $100 each to stay off cigarettes before age 20.

The ad is already on several local billboards, but the company that owns two-thirds of Tacoma’s 250 signs refused to use it.

“We support health promotion,” said Randy Swain, president of Ackerley Outdoor Advertising. “We just don’t accept inflammatory ads that attack legitimate companies.”