Tobacco Documents Online

Newsletter of the Beer, .W, ne, Main Office: 115 W. Sunrise Highway Freeport, L I., N. Y. 11520 Tel. FReeport 9-8531-8538 (Mrs.) Patricla TI Publisher Mail Address: P.O. Box 263 Freeport, L. I., N. Y. 11520 Letter No. 1508 February 7, 19 69 Cause for alarm for this industry and all other industries is the 6-i vote this week by the Federal Communications Commission to ban cigarette advertising from television and radio. The cause for alarm is that, if this ban should take effect as far as these two advertis- ing media are concerned, it could possibly be extended to magazines and newspapers and, although members of this industry do not advertise so called "hard" liquor on radio and TV, wines and beers are advertised and if the FCC gets away with the cigarette ban, you can guess who will be next on the list. "VVe do not know if The Council for Tobacco Research -U.S.A. had any inkling that the FCC was going to come up with such a vote, but on February 3rd, two days before the vote, we received a release from the council on a statement by Dr. Clarence Cook Little, Scientific Director of The Council who said that "there is no demonstrated casual relationship between smoking or any disease. "The gaps in knowledge are so great that those who dogmatically assert otherwise - whether they state that there is or is not such a casual relationship - are premature in judgment. If anything, the pure biological evidence is pointing away from, not toward, the casual hypothesis. " Dr. Little said that scientific progress in the smoking and health field, supported in large part by the Council, has shown that - "I. The genetic markup of the individual largely determines his susceptibility to cancer, cardiovasuclar disease or chromic respiratory disease which may appear after exposure to various enviromental challenges. "2. Many factors other than smoking are significantly assoiiated with cancer, cardio- vascular disease and chromic respiratory disease. Ever notice you always find the bestseIling brands advertised in one place, week after week? Life. Brand-building is our business. TI55842608

Alcoholic Beverage E~CUTIVES' NEWSLETTER No. IS08 - February 7,1968 -2- "3. Statistical associations between smoking and lung cancer, based on study of those t~vo factors alone, are not proof of casual relationship in the opinion of most epidemiologists. "4. Major evaluations of health and smoking have been based on painting mouse skins with ar~ificially prepared smoke condensates. But the relative degrees of cancer-form- ing response observed in these experiments neither parallel nor coincide with statisti- cal data on the association of tobacco smoking and diseases in man. "5. Interpretation of certain lung tissue changes following smoking as being unique or 'precancerous' is in dispute among pathologists. "6. Rapid progress is being made in the development of improved methods for experi- mental exposure of animals to whole smoke for the sake of better control and more accurate eva luation o " Dro Little is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a former managing director for sixteen years of the American Society for the Control of Cancer (now the American Cancer Society), a past president of the American Association for Cancer Research, and founder and former director of the Jackson Laboratory for Cancer Research. It would seem from the above that, as Dr. Little said, "The whole field of smoking and health requires a great deal more research and information before a proper evalua- tion can be made. " The proposed ban by the FCC cannot take effect unless Congress premits a provision of the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 to expire June 30th. The provision prohibits any Federal, state or local agency from regulating cigarette advertising° Just how Congress will vote is anybody's guess. If Congress lets the provision expire, the regulation could go into effect July 7th. The Federal Trade Commission, which sponsored the requirement that all packs of cigarettes specify "Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health" ,in its annual report to Congress last June, said that it favored an outright ban on all cigarette a dverli sing. The FCC stressed, "our action is limited to the unique situation and product; we are un- aware of any other product commercials calling for such action, and expressly disclaim any intention to so proceed against other product commercials ." "That one." Advertising is important. It helps a customer point out the brand he wants and say "that one." But where such advertising appears is important, too. In 1968, in the newsweekly field, only one magazine showed an increase in pages of liquor advertising-- up more than 12%. This o ~n~ Newsweek T!55842609

Alcoholic Beverage F~XEGUTIVES' NE%VSLETYER No. 1508 - February 7,1969 -3- Frankly, we have our doubts on this la~er statement. Once the FCC gets one foot in the door, it will hit at the next logical indust~f - the alcoholic beverage industry - and the FTC will follow. Two insurance companies are currently running campaigns hitting at drunk driving. The Continental Insurance Companies' current ad is a double spread picturing a man on one side holding a driver's license and the other page is headlined: "I'VE HAD A DRIVER'S LICENSE FOR l0 YEARS. FOR 9 OF THOSE YEARS I WAS A DRUNK." Body of the copy reads: "Fewer than 4% of all drivers on the road are heavy drinkers, Yet heavy drinkers are involved in nearly 50% of all traffic deaths. The frightening truth is that drunks are the deadliest drivers ever let loose on the highways. Knowing that, you'd think that our licensing officials would take extraordinary measures to hunt down this small gang of killers and get them off the road° And save 25,000 lives a year. "Well, think again. The way things are now, there's no effective way to take a drunk's license away before he kills somebody. With 25,000 fives at stake, there must be a better answer than that. Maybe it's a thorough physical examination. For instance, in Pennsylvania a doctor must certify that every new driving-license applicant is not an alcoholic. Maybe there's a better way, but certainly what Pennsylvania does is better than nothing. And nothing is what all but a handful of states do. So if you're tired of being a target, write to your local legislators and demand that they get those drunken killers before they get you. NOT EVERYONE SHOULD DRIVE." This is all well and good - if you could keep "known" drunks off the road. But we will bet quite a lot of dough that unless an alcoholic actually went into a doctor's office in a complete state of inebriation to get a physical exam, that no doctor could say for sure that that person was an alcoholic. In the first place alcoholics are the cutest people you want to meet. They can straighten up and fly right when it is necessary. To have a doctor have to certify that every new drivlng-license applicant is not an alcoholic to us is just a racket. Next thing you will have to carry a card around saying you are not an alcoholic in order to get a drink or buy a bottle. More important it is most likely not the alcoholics who gets involved in a drunk-driving accident, They'd rather drink than drive around. It is usually zhe guy that goes out and gets a good load on once or twice a year - on New Year's, or some other celebration and is not used to drinking that is involved in that type of accident. To boil it down, in our estimation we doubt that there is any possible way for anyone to figure out in advance just who is going to be involved in a drunk-driving accident. Also we think the figures are highly inflated. The other insurance company running similar ads is Allstate~ One ad is headlined "One of the next 50 drivers coming your way is drunk. Not drinking - drunk." The company is running ads in magazines urging people to write their state officials and suppor~ en- forcement of drunk driving laws by police and courts. In addition, newspaper ads will be run in the 22 states and D. C. whose drinking and drlving laws do not meet the standards on alcohol promulgated as a result of the National H_ighv;ay Safe~l Act. Ads will also appear on "Meet the Press" on TV. T!55842610