Politix

Prev Next
Featured Quizzes
Politix Daily Headlines
Featured Debates
Issues

See all 17 issues

People
White House

See all people

SMOKING

Tobacco Firms Will Air Ads Admitting They Lied About Smoking Danger

Ads have been mandated by federal court

Next>

by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: AP

Coming soon to a TV set near you: a Kamikaze anti-smoking campaign paid for by cigarette companies like Philip Morris and Reynolds American Inc.

The companies have been ordered to pay for the ads by a federal court ruling that found the tobacco companies guilty of lying to the public as far back as 1964. The case was brought by the Justice Dept in 1999.

One of the ads will say "Smoking kills, on average, 1,200 Americans. Every day."

Another will begin: "A federal court has ruled that the defendant tobacco companies deliberately deceived the American public by falsely selling and advertising low tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes."

The tobacco firms will appeal the ruling, citing their free speech rights.

Like this article? B Vote Up
?

Are you pleased that these ads will be aired?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • Real4WheelDrv
    !
    Doesn't matter either way, anyone by now who doesn't know smoking is bad without being told by the MAKERS of the product, just plain don't care. The people who enjoy it will continue to do it, and new smokers will still take the place of the ones that die.
  • DARSB
    !
    The free speech argument is weird. It's bad enough that we have an industry based on selling an addictive carcinogen. Are the tobacco companies claiming they have a constitutional right to lie about their products' safety?
  • u
    AceLuby
    !
    @dances-weebles First, they do have the right to lie, but they also have to face the liability of doing so when lying about the safety of their product. Second, smokers don't have the right of someone making them feel guilty about it, in fact, if someone feels they want to make you feel guilty about something it is their first amendment right to do so.
  • View all 18 replies >
  • PNWest
    !
    Not many people watch TV anymore. Not many people who do watch commercials. Not many people don't already know that the tobacco companies lied. Not many people smoke any more. The money would have been better spent providing healthcare to those who were harmed.
  • Loridae
    !
    I do agree with your logic. I think all this is geared for the upcoming generation of smokers though. The idea being hit em hard hit em young.
  • texas_cutie75
    !
    @PNWest I haven't watched TV in the traditional sense we brought a DVR in the house. Occasionally I slow down during commercials if something year catches my eye. I fully agree with your comments.
  • u
    CommonSense
    !
    How exactly did they lie? I'm no fan of tobacco. But if you put X amount of cancer-causing material into your body doesn't it follow that 2X or any number greater than 1 times X is going to pose a greater risk and then by definition doing the smaller amount would indeed be "safer", not "safe" but "safer". If they had said "low tar low nicotine cigarettes are perfectly safe and without risk" that would've been a lie. Saying they are "safer" is self-evidently true, unless there's something I haven't heard of. If they seriously adulterated low-tar low-nicotine cigarettes to the point where the new health dangers outweigh any decrease in the other harm-causing materials then it would be a lie.
  • View all 8 replies >
  • o
    woodtick57
    !
    What cause is that? hyped falsehoods?

    maybe what we need on that issue is the vaccine deniers to make a commercial sayingg they lied about it...
  • o
    woodtick57
    !
    @bsking

    people who dont want their kids or grandkids contracting some preventable disease because some parents bought into some false hype.
  • Loridae
    !
    Absolutely woodstick! Science proved their part in this whole fiasco with childhood shots, but Jenny McCarthy and her crew never had to prove a damn thing. It'll take a long time to get over the damage they have done.
  • Loridae
    !
    @Loridae Plus part of the issue was taking that many shots in a single dose. Now they have the shots singly so you can give them one by one.
  • View all 13 replies >
  • o
    Sharpshooter
    !
    Let's shut it down completely, Axelshaft's boy will be more than happy to give the 600,000 + workers unemployment compensation, food stamps and free cell phones.

    We seem to have adopted a proclivity for shooting ourselves in the foot at every opportunity. The money being spent for these ads could do a lot more positive things like providing education for future smokers or researching ways to use the crops for some other purpose.

    Naah..... pillorying was such a quaint pastime, we need to bring it back.
  • o
    NO-BAMA
    !
    Can we get these same federal courts to make Barry pay for TV/radio/internet commercials stating the truths about all his "falsehoods", or is this just going to be a continuation of trying to demean and degrade what certain groups dont like so they have to try and destroy it for everyone?
    Barry would be broke in a week if he had to pay for his lies that he's told to the American public.
    If people don't know by now that tobacco use "could" affect you adversely and maybe even kill you, then maybe they need some rat poison mixed in with their food on a daily basis. Barry smokes, its a wonder he's not suing the tobacco company.
    Here's an idea, why can't people leave others alone? Why do certain "holier than thou" groups need to impose their will onto others? Pathetic society this once great nation,(turned global joke) we have become.
  • u
    norezen
    !
    I think its constinutionally safe to deny tobacco companies the ability to market a harmful substance (but we allow fast food, soda, and other junk food companies to air commercials) or deny them the ability to lie about the health risks. However, when you force someone to say something it becomes a problem. Corporations, like people, have the right to remain silent. It also is unconstitutional to force someone to perform labor or a service obtained by threat of legal consequences.
  • rharrold
    !
    Stupid. In the early '50s both cigarette companies & the government showed us films on the dangers of smoking. It wasn't the films that scared us away from smoking...it was the fear of our parents wrath that did. Ever since the advent of "The Geat Society" & cradle to grave welfare and schools teaching that home, traditional American values, and that government not parents rules has led to the breakdown in societal norms that kept America from declining into a second rate 3rd world jungle. Citizens will rue the day that they voted for the clown and his "bread & circuses" act.
  • o
    woodtick57
    !
    @bsking

    Why? is there something wrong withh having a smoke now and then? i bet my lungs are ealtier than someone living in Phoenix (but it's a dry smog...)
  • u
    Bellweather
    !
    Very pleased. But, do not believe the ads will stop hard core smokers though. Even though the tobacco companies lie, the public at large is well aware of the serious adverse health conditions from smoking tobacco. I cannot walk one block downtown without having to hold my breath three times, easy. They love to smoke so much that they say stuff like, "I'm gonna die anyway." It's the physical quality of life that you live that matters. Your manner of death too. Even a slight dose regularly of any carcinogen is risky. Smoking tobacco makes the cancer risk go off the scale. But people smoke them anyway. You really do not want to die from cancer.
    It is not an easy way to die.
  • u
    Cheenoguy
    !
    If we're going to institute policies that put any industry out of business I can't think of a better choice.
    Lets put these cancer merchants out of the murder business.
  • MRMacrum
    !
    These commercials will hardly put any tobacco companies out of business. For onr thing, most have diversified so much or been swallowed up and are now part of conglomerates that if they went belly up, it would not be the end of them. Second, tobacco addiction will continue to keep tobacco farms tilling their soil.
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    An advert that says "A federal court has ruled that the defendant tobacco companies.." is not admitting to lying. It is only saying "They made us say this."
  • jessejaymes
    !
    Here is the hypocrisy of govt in full bloom. The govt makes more money than the tobacco companies from the sale of a pack of cigarettes. State taxes and federal taxes combined. If they're so concerned (and I don't smoke) then why don't they just ban it? Follow the money, always follow the money.
  • Real4WheelDrv
    !
    Because (and this line of thinking is more prevalent due to the political climate the last few years) the tobacco corporations are just heartless leeches getting rich off blood money! Whereas the government is the symbolic embodiment of the will of We The People! It is pure and beyond reproach! Sigh.
  • jessejaymes
    !
    @Real4WheelDrv I sincerely wish you Obama haters would stop pretending that this is any different under obama than it has been for the last 40 years. We have known the dangers of smoking for at least that long and govt has made trillions on tobacco taxes under every president during that time. Obama is no better or worse in this particular case.
  • Real4WheelDrv
    !
    @jessejaymes Nowhere did I mention the current administration, I said "government". Taxes were being raised and collected on tobacco products long before Obama filled the office. Doesn't matter what we do as long as people blindly support platforms instead of the individuals behind them...and I'm enough of a bitter cynic to believe that government officials on both sides probably receive kickbacks from drug cartels and many other sources, so keeping pot legalization/immigration and other issues in eternal gridlock is beneficial.
  • MRMacrum
    !
    Our experience with trying to control alcohol and pot should remind us that trying to keep Americans from their own stupidity is an exercise in futility. Might as well tax the bejeesus out of it and make some voluntary tax money from that stupidity.
  • View all 7 replies >
  • martydotcom
    !
    They should have published the cost to the Federal Tax payer for these 1200 people a day dying for the last six months of their life and have the $'s contributed to Medicare, Medicaid or to unpaid hospital bills rather than enriching the TV stations for air time
  • dances-weebles
    !
    while they're at it why don't they insist that the u.s. federal gov't. run adds apologising for giving away cigarettes to servicemen in their 'survival kits'? why don't we force doctors to apoligise for smoking in hospital corridors? why don't we force all mothers and fathers for smoking in the house and in front of children? why don't we force every person who has ever smoked on an airplane or in a restaurant to apologise?

    why don't we just blow it out our sweat socks?
  • Pokeyman1
    !
    78 / been smoking all my life(7?8 years old ) stupid I guess.President says i will be gone ??? at 82. They fixed cig. so you have to lite up more / dont matter. Bad habit.
  • R Load more comments...