An advertisement is an announcement, promoting a product or service, which is publicly published or broadcast and is paid for by the promoter. Congress and other legislative bodies have long recognized the potential dangers posed by many products and services and the need to regulate or even to prohibit their advertising. This leaflet is designed to provide more information on tobacco advertising and why such advertising should have limits placed on it or be banned. I. Tobacco advertising promotes the nation's largest preventable cause of sickness and death and poses special risks to children Tobacco advertising tends to portray smoking as a socially desirable activity. Unfortunately this advertising fails to disclose the health and addictive dangers of smoking.
Cigarettes are, by a wide margin, the most dangerous of all consumer products.
They are the only product which is universally acknowledged to be dangerous even when not abused or when used in moderation. It is one of the few products to be found which is so addictive that many who start as children soon find themselves unable to stop. The Commission found evidence that the tobacco industry deliberately attempts to persuade children and others who view their ads to overlook the health warnings. This practice is accomplished by a variety of techniques which include showing smokers engaged in vigorous healthy outdoor activities, showing smokers next to sports equipment which suggests good health and by sponsoring sporting events. Limits or bans on tobacco advertising are legal An individual state, in exercise of its police powers to promote public health, has the power to impose a total ban upon the sale of tobacco, and in the past this power has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court.