I’m not an advocate for tobacco or tobacco companies. I never have been. I’m an advocate for rights and freedom – particularly individual rights.
However, I am a staunch supporter of the Constitution and don’t believe that it intended to be used selectively when convenient and somehow disappears when people get their ideas about rights confused.
As such, I have maintained a quiet, but strong, outrage over the continued assault on the tobacco and alcohol industries over advertising and their ability to speak to the public in any manner.
First off, it is a blatant and atrocious violation of the First Amendment. If the First can be used to defend the worst of the worst (i.e. the Westboro Baptist Church et al.) and allows them the freedom to speak their mind and offend even the most jaded of people, why does it somehow dry up and blow away when dealing with tobacco?
Second, and perhaps even more agitating, is that it is insulting to every one of us who is brave enough to think on our own. After all, if we can’t handle advertising and free speech when it comes to tobacco, how do we manage to even make it through our daily lives? After all, we’re inundated with all sorts of things every day, and short of a few weak-willed people here and there, we aren’t a bunch of robots obeying signs and commercials.
Not even those mushy teenagers are that mailable… Yet convincing the nanny state do-gooders of that is nearly an impossible task…
From CBS:
Alcohol, Tobacco Products Aimed At Teens?
Peer pressure, catchy advertising, popular culture. America’s youth are inundated with visual appeals to drink and smoke…
No kidding, huh? They’re also inundated with appeals to buy particular brands of car insurance and drive specific cars… Yet, they still choose to do such things, don’t they? or is this selective thinking? America’s youth can choose for themselves despite advertising, but are helpless to resist alcohol and tobacco?
There are fruit-flavored cigars and energy drinks that are high-caffeine – and in a new twist, up to 9 percent alcohol.
OK, stop right there. have any of these morons actually tried a “flavored” cigar”? I’m sorry, but flavor infusion doesn’t make a cigar taste like candy. In fact, they rarely (if ever) taste like the name. It just infuses the tobacco with another element of flavor. This is a very misleading argument.
“Well, they are influencing younger kids with all these flavors and that’s not good,” said Maria Gomez. “When they get older, they might be addicted to these things.”
Give me a break! Just because you may be that weak doesn’t mean that everybody else is. maybe i am wrong to gove people the benefit of the doubt on this, but I just don’t know very many people who are so feeble that they cannot resist colors and flavors.
And that is what concerns prosecutors of 28 states and the District of Columbia, who are accusing breweries of promoting products that are “highly attractive to underage youth.”
Lunacy! Taxpayers should be outraged that their states are wasting money on such endeavors. It’s insulting that our government feels that this is acceptable or responsible practice.
If the breweries don’t comply, the attorney generals are threatening lawsuits. And an anti-smoking organization is pushing for tighter federal regulation of the tobacco industry.
Oh! There is is. The dreaded “L” word. I can’t believe this. Somebody should counter-sue each state for infringment of the First Amendment.
“The sad truth is, a very heavy percentage of tobacco industry marketing is targeted directly at non-smoking adolescents,” said Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Some day I hope to meet this guy and ask him just what his problem is. Every time I see his name pop up I feel like vomiting. Holding up “the children” as a way to push your own agenda is a really, really low blow. It’s perhaps one of the most despicable acts in this fight.
“Despite what the colors look like, despite what the advertising says, the primary point is it’s illegal to sell tobacco products to minors in all 50 states,” said David Howard of the R.J. Reynolds company.
But critics say the problem is not the law – it’s the message, which can persuade teens to try drinking and smoking.
It’s just like we always say here at BtBWI… To these people, the only answer to a problem is more government. More legislation. More laws. More lawsuits. More investigations. More wasted money…
Don’t you ever wonder what gets into the heads of these people? What makes this right in their eyes?
I just don’t understand…
Filed under: Media & News, anti insanity | Tagged: advertising, alcohol, first amendment, free speech, smoking, tobacco
wait, this is the land of the free?
good point, i was thinking about that the other day. Although personally, i don’t want to drive past the huge billboards trying to sell me Miller’s Highlife, it should not be made illegal.
I do not believe that Corporations have the same inalienable rights as natural persons, nor do I believe that they should. To clarify, I do not believe that the tobacco industry as a whole, any individual tobacco company, or any other corporation has the same degree of free speech rights that individual people do.
That being said, businesses, and more importantly, the people who own them, do have the same individual free speech rights as the rest of the population. If there is a compelling cause (I SAID IF) for the government to regulate or limit advertising, then it is incumbent on government to do so fairly and equitably. The purpose of advertising is to entice people to purchase the product advertised. If we are to ban tobacco advertising because it works, then we must likewise ban all other advertising for the same reason.
All of the contemporary advertising that I can recall makes prominent note that it is illegal for minors to purchase, possess, or consume tobacco (and alcohol). With the exception of civil disobedience, people have an obligation to obey the law – that includes minors.
Claiming that the advertising made the product seem so appealing that you were compelled to break the law would not be an allowable defense in any US courtroom. The day the courts deem that to be an acceptable defense, I’m going to go out and rob a bank because all of the advertising for Armani suits, Rolls Royce Limousines, Lear Jets, and Nevada Brothels made those products so appealing that I was compelled to break the law!
Lighting up the Cuban cigar in court, will just be plain old civil disobedience to protest the discriminatory segregation laws against smokers, and government policies regarding Cuba.