Tobacco Documents Online

. r 21 Advertising Age April 3, 1967 Let's All Refuse to Work on Cigcret Ads, He Urges To the Editor: This is an open letter to creative people in a crea- tive bttsiness. Those of us who care deeply about advertising have seen It become more than a means of communication-an eighth lively art, perhaps. At' its very best, it has done more than advertising was meant to do. It has moved people emotionally, charmed them; best of all, through its honesty, made peo- ple aware that ours was not a world populated by con artists . .. . Still, the goodness of all this con- tinues to be marred by a thing so horrid that we cannot Ignore It and hope to function as human be- ings, let alone writers and artists. It I aa -3 a* 2(? 9',1 BROADCASTING March•27, 1967 Friendly says Stanton wanted to kill cigarette ads A hitherto unreported asser- tion that CBS President Frank Stanton was prepared to eliminate all cigarette advertising on the com- pany's television and radio facilities several years ago is mentioned briefly in the Fred Friendly book, "Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control," which is being published today (March 27). On pages 208 and 209 of'thebook,. Mr. Friendly, former CBS News pres- ident who resigned last year after a widely publicized dispute with top management over alleged interference with the running of his department, refers to the cigarette interlude in these words: "[Dr. Frank Stanton's] finest at- tempt at statesmanship to date, I be- lieve, concerns the connection be- tween cigarettes and lung cancer. He lost the battle but with perserver- ance, he may win the war, and if he does, this victory will deserve a place in broadcast history." Mr. Friendly states that neither Dr. Stanton nor CBS Board Chair- man William S. Paley is a cigarette smoker. The author said there is no doubt in Dr. Stanton's mind about the effect of cigarettes on the public's health. In the months preceding the release of the surgeon general's re- port on the relationship between cig- arette smoking and health, Mr. Friendly reports, Dr. Stanton insisted that CBS' had to begin formulating a policy. "His plan was that, well in ad- vance, we should announce that on a specified date, we would eliminate all cigarette advertising, for which I was once told, CBS received ap- proximately $70 million annually," Mr. Friendly writes. "Stanton believed this amount- almost half of a total of over $':150 million cigarette dollars-spent in broadcasting each year could be re- placed by other advertising revenue." Mr. Friendly recounts that Dr. Stanton lost the "first round" probab- ly because of pressure from the radio division and partly because the birth of CBS was associated with tobacco interests. But he is convinced that if the government doesn't order it first, Dr. Stanton's name will be associated with the limitation or rejection of cigarette advertising on television. "He is too much of a realist to be- lieve that an industry licensed in the public interest can indefinitely accept $150 million a year-a sum apt to increase-to promote a habit that is We are speaking of cigaret ad- vertising. Moralists among us can applaud certain vaguely well-in- tentioned moves in the right direc- tion by the radio-tv industry. But the real responsibility still lies mouldering in the laps of the agen- cies who, after all, create the ad- vertising ... Let us suggest a way, a begin- ning. Let every copywriter and art director refuse to work on a cigaret' account. Let every casting director refuse to cast any cigaret commer- cial. Let every producer and direc- tor refuse to film or record one. Let every talent flatly turn down such a commercial. Let every printer, i every film house refuse to print or I process anything which - makes smoking seem a glamorous, sophis- ticated, "in," refreshing and (in- I credible! ) funny diversion. In the end, of course, it will mean losing money, lovely money. Lots of it, maybe. But now, right now,' let those of us who are not afraid I of the truth make a beginning ... i Ron Bloonlberg, T. L. Reirnel' Advertising, Phil- ~ adelnhia. beyond a shadow of a reasonable doubt against the public health. Using the public air to spread a disease that may kill 300,000 Americans is palpable disgrace that should make the quiz scandals look like a harm- less parlor prank." ~A Mr. Friendly points out in his O book that in many other civilized O countries cigarette advertising in W broadcasting has been banned, and in O England replaced by antismoking campaigns and adds: "Stanton is too intelligent a man N' not to understand the inevitability of that step in this country. In 1959 he said that CBS' would be responsible for what goes on the air. Congress believed him then and I do now." Mr. Friendly, who has since joined the Ford Foundation as a TV con- sultant, and also serves as a profes- sor at the Columbia University Grad- uate School of Journalism, relates both the high points and low points of his 16-year CBS career in "Due to Circumstances beyond Our Con- trol." An extensive adaptation from the book has been published in two installments in Life magazine [B[toAn- cesrttvo, March 20, 13]. The book is published by Random House Inc. and is priced at $6.95. ~~~ ~.. .