[Keilar:] Some ex-NBA players, in North Korea for the exhibition basketball game, have left the country and are in Beijing today. One of the players, Charles Smith, talked to reporters about what he thinks they accomplished on the controversial trip.
[Charles Smith, Former Nba Basketball Player:] We all sat out to use basketball as a great cultural exchange. We accomplished that mission. All the players there and the American tourists, even our documentary film crew, I think we all agree that the trip was just simply incredible. I had an opportunity to meet with the leadership, so I will do a live interview at some point soon to discuss the culture and some of their economic strategies. We talked about quite a few things, even some of the concerns. I will do that in a live interview. But the trip was great.
[Keilar:] Dennis Rodman, who led the delegation, stayed behind for what is his fourth trip in less than a year. High alert in Russia as the nation prepares to host the world for the Winter Olympics. Even as security is stepped up in the resort town of Sochi, the FBI is sending dozens of agents to help protect athletes. There have been three suicide bombings since October and Islamic extremists have vowed to disrupt the games. In the latest incident, six bodies were found in four cars, some of them rigged to explode bombs. The games are set to start on February 7th. We have come a long way since the days when doctors and celebrities promoted cigarettes. 50 years ago tomorrow, the surgeon general warned that smoking is linked to lung cancer. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at how cigarette advertising has changed since then.
[Announcer:] Make your own 30-day Camel mildest test in your key zone.
[Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Cnn Chief Medical Correspondent:] During the hay day in the 1940s and 50s, ads like this were common place.
[Announcer:] What cigarette do you smoke, Doctor? In this nationwide survey of general practitioners, surgeons, throat specialists, diagnosticians and so on, the brand named most was Camel.
[Gupta:] By 1950, American adults were smoking 4,000 cigarettes for every person every year. But in 1952, "Reader's Digest," then the most popular magazine, published a two-page article, "Cancer by the Carton." It was the first time a mainstream publication like this connected smoking to cancer. In 1955, the Federal Trade Commission forbade companies from making health claims about cigarettes, blocking ads like this from Phillip Morris, "Scientifically proved, less irritating to the smoker's nose and throat."
[Jon Hamm, Actor:] The Federal Trade Commission and "Reader's Digest" have done you a favor.
[Gupta:] It's a moment that helped to launched fictional ad wiz, Don Draper, on AMC's "Mad Men."
[Hamm:] We can say anything we want. How do you make your cigarettes?
[Unidentified Actor:] We bred insect repellant and tobacco seeds, plant them in the North Carolina sunshine, grow it, plant it, cure it, toast it.
[Hamm:] There you go. There you go.
[Unidentified Actor:] But everybody else's tobacco is toasted.
[Hamm:] No. Everybody else's tobacco is poisonous. Lucky Strikes is toasted.
[Gupta:] In fact, that was an actual Lucky Strikes slogan in real life. But evidence of harm became overwhelming. On January 11th, 1964, Dr. Luther Terry issued the very first surgeon general's report.
[Dr. Luther Terry, Former Surgeon General:] The strongest relationship between cigarette smoking and health was in the field of lung cancer.
[Gupta:] A strong relationship. How strong? He reported a 70 percent increase in mortality for smokers. Heavy smokers at least 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers. The first warning on the pack in 1966 was a milestone, but also a major understatement. "Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health." Today, it gets right to the point, it causes lung cancer, heart disease, and more. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
[Keilar:] That's it for me. NEWSROOM continues right now with my pal, Brooke Baldwin.
[Brooke Baldwin, Cnn Anchor:] Brianna Keilar, thank you so much.