A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers was a historic advertisement run by major American tobacco companies on January 4, 1954 in response to a study showing that cigarette tar caused cancerous tumors on mouse skin. The advertisement ran in more than 400 newspapers throughout the U.S. aimed at an estimated 43 million people. It was the first in a campaign to dispute reports that smoking cigarettes could cause lung cancer and had other dangerous health effects.