Tobacco Documents Online

Page 36 HT®0033037 MMM MUIIiM New York, New York June 25, 1964 Ad Nauseum The most charitable thing that can be said of the Federal Trade Com- mission's new cigarette ruling is that it constitutes an act of semantic legerdemain: °!t is an ecnr^f." r,r deceptive act or practice ... to faid to aTiaclose, clearly and prominently, im a71 advertising and on every pack, box., carton or other con- tainer In wh.iela cigarettes are sold to the consuming public that cigareft smoking is dangerous to heakia and may cause death Jro»t cancer and other di8aQSe8." This stretches the definitlons of °unfair° and "deoepttve" beyond tecognitton. Beyond that. Jt Introduces a wholly new concept of advertising regulation certainly never intended by the authors of the Federal Trade Commission Act: that advertisers can be compelled to enlist themselves in an administratively decreed public education campaign, and compelled to make every advertisement a part of a Plederal drive against uatng the products advertised! This has nothing to do with truth In advertising, which is properly subject to Federal (as well as state and self) regulatlon. It has nothing to do with public health, In the sm, ae of curbing contagious diseases. It 4rows directly out of the concept of the Coddled American, who has to be protected agatnst himself at every turn; who can't be trusted to manage his own affairs or make his own decisions, or provide for his own welfare, or to buy a pack of ciRarettes without being waraed, These May Kill You. Logically extended, the concept becomes ludicrous. Alcohol surely causes far more early deaths than cigarettes -- shoaldn't every bottle carry a skull and crossbones, every advertisement a "clear and promi- nent" caution against excessive use? We all know the dangers of over• wetght: the mind boggles at what this concept could mean to food advertising (calorie counts on every box of chocolates; on every package of cake mix, a printed wandng against having a second slice). And what about automobiles* Shouldn't every advertisement for a span{.Ing new model solemnly advise against becoming an accident stath3ticY And so on, ad nausemn. The hardest bit at first might be the itngle writers, who soon would ran out of catc,hy rh,ymes for °aneer" (or worse yet, for "cancer and other diseeses'1). But after a while wm suspect the public Itself, to whmn the dangers of ssmoktng are no'lamger exactly nevia, might get tired of deil.y morality lectures eour6esy of the F'hC-which. Incidentally, we had always thought was suppnsed to regulate trade practices, not to reform the personal habits of the public.