Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: tobacco advertising ban
Message-ID: <1351@looking.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jan 88 23:29:01 GMT
References: <5929@utcsri.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Distribution: can
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 20

In article <5929@utcsri.UUCP> pkern@utcsri.UUCP (pkern) writes:
>
>Shouldn't one be allowed to advertise a product so long as the product is legal?
>Wouldn't it be more useful to put another tax on tobacco products and
>use the generated revenue to help tobacco farmers switch to other crops?

While I'm a strong anti-smoker, and firmly against smoking in public
places, I'm also very much against any such ban.

To ban people from promoting their product or viewpoint scares me.
What would be more reasonable would be "truth-in-advertising" laws
on dangerous, addictive products like tobacco.  The small warning stickers
in the ads aren't enough.  Perhaps they could require all cigarette ads to
picture diseased lungs, cancer death statistics or other such things
in proportion to these effects.

Smoking is dangerous and offensive.  Make the ads say that.  But don't ban
them.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473