Cigarette advertising ban
The Cigarette Advertising Ban, enacted through the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969, prohibited the broadcast of cigarette advertisements on television and radio. This legislation was a response to increasing public concern over the impact of cigarette commercials, which were prevalent in the 1960s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on April 1, 1970, the ban was initially set to take effect on December 1, 1970, but was delayed to January 2, 1971, to accommodate specific televised events. The ban significantly affected the advertising revenue of major television networks, with some reporting losses of up to 50 percent. While the tobacco industry anticipated the ban, the immediate impact on cigarette sales was limited, as sales actually increased in the early 1970s. However, the long-term effects were profound, as this legislation set the stage for further restrictions on tobacco advertising, leading to additional laws in the following decades that targeted various tobacco products. Overall, the Cigarette Advertising Ban marked a pivotal shift in public health policy concerning tobacco products in the United States.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Cigarette advertising ban
Identification U.S. federal legislation
Date Implemented on January 2, 1971
The 1971 ban on cigarette commercials set a legal and social precedent that would eventually lead to the prohibition of tobacco advertising in broadcast media.
The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969, the legislation that banned the broadcast of cigarette advertisements on television and radio, was an amendment to the landmark federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965, which required tobacco companies to place warning labels on all cigarette packaging and advertisements. The U.S. Congress acted to ban cigarette advertising in response to growing complaints about cigarette commercials, which appeared regularly on television and radio during the 1960’s. The ban, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on April 1, 1970, was originally scheduled to take effect on December 1, 1970, but the U.S. Senate, in order to appease senators from tobacco-producing states, postponed the ban until January 2, 1971, in order to allow broadcast of cigarette commercials during college football games on New Year’s Day.
The ban exerted a dramatic effect on the broadcast and advertising industries, which had become dependent upon the revenue that cigarette commercials generated. Two of the three major television networks, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), claimed that the ban had cost them 50 percent of their advertising revenue. Still, tobacco companies continued to devote millions of dollars each year to commercials for cigars and smokeless tobacco, which were still legal in the years immediately following the cigarette ban. The tobacco industry had anticipated a ban on cigarette commercials, which had become less cost-effective in the wake of a 1967 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling that required broadcasters to air one antismoking public service announcement (PSA) for every three cigarette commercials shown. By 1970, tobacco companies, whose sales had dropped nearly 7 percent as a result of the PSAs, were prepared to initiate a voluntary ban on cigarette commercials provided that the PSAs would also cease.
Impact
Tobacco companies unsuccessfully challenged the Cigarette Smoking Act in federal court in 1971 and 1982; however, the short-term impact of the ban on cigarette sales was limited. In fact, cigarette sales rose 4.1 percent from 1971 through 1973. The long-term impact of the legislation implementing the ban, however, was more dramatic. The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act was the first in a series of legislative measures that would eventually eliminate the practice of advertising tobacco products on radio and television, including the Little Cigar Act of 1973 and the Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act of 1986, and it laid the groundwork for more stringent limitations upon all tobacco advertising during the 1990’s.
Bibliography
Jowett, Garth S. Propaganda and Persuasion. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1999.
Kluger, Richard. Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris. New York: Vintage, 1997.