Tobacco Documents Online

Virtually everyone is aware of the Surgeon General's contention that smoking is: hazardous to health~in a variety af ways. The fact that people nonetheless choose to continue to smoke reflects nothing more than the right of'every person in a free society to act regardless of his awareness of the alleged consequences of his actions. The FTC Staff, Repre;sentative Waxman, and Senators Hatch and Packwood appear to ltiave lost sight of th,is fundamental premise.. Arthur J. Stevens f O C.~ 09 W C11 ~

Miarch 3, 1982 ~ n H.R. 4957'~; S.192'9, Positive and immediiate help in defeatingithis leg,is-lation is neededifrom outside the tobacco business. The issues involved are important tolthe publishing and adver- tising communitiese because the proposed bills impose upon, both the freedom to advertise and to exercis commercial rights of free speech. It is an abuse of the function of adwertising when the real purpose of restrictive legislation is to change human behavior, and thereb socially engineer conducltwhich . the Government opposes and wants to control. Compounding the danger of this: legislation is the fact that it is predicated on the faulty premise, recently put forward by the FTC Staff, that the public is not sufficiently aware of' the specific health hazards alleged to be related to: smoking. This conclusion is based1upon the Staff's confusion between consumer acaareness, and consumer belief. The FTC. Staff has mistakenly concluded that because conswmers report that they do not believe that certain statements about smoking and health are true, they are, therefore, unaware of the information conveyed by the statements.