Prohibition on cigarette advertising
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In 1964, Dr. Luther Terry, the United States Surgeon General, released his Advisory Committee Report on Smoking and Health, a document that used over 7,000 scientific studies to link smoking with cancer, emphysema and other diseases. The response was intense.
Some celebrities, such as Lawrence Welk and Doris Day, refused to accept tobacco advertising on their TV shows. Magazines such as the Reader’s Digest, the New Yorker, and the Christian Science Monitor, also announced that they would not carry cigarette ads. Despite these voluntary efforts, the U.S. Congress moved to ban cigarette advertising from radio and television altogether.
By 1967, under the Fairness Doctrine, television stations were required to broadcast one anti-smoking public service announcement for every three cigarette ads. By 1969, members of Congress proposed a ban on all cigarette ads on radio and television, and this prohibition became law effective January 2, 1971. Congress also required labels that warned about the health dangers of smoking on every package of cigarettes. Meanwhile, the government continued to issue new reports and health warnings about the dangers of cigarette smoking.
In 1996, the Federal Drug Administration designated cigarettes as an “addictive drug” in order to impose restrictions similar to the ones on other addictive drugs as well as to better regulate how cigarettes can be marketed. However, in 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the FDA had no such authority.
On June 11, 2011, Congress passed the FDA Tobacco Regulation Bill, which granted more authority to the FDA to regulate the cigarette industry.
So far the film and video game industries have not been regulated, but they have made some voluntary moves to eliminate any depictions of cigarette smoking in a positive or glamorous way. The Motion Picture Association of America may give a movie a higher rating if it depicts smoking. For example, instead of a "G" for General Audiences, a movie showing smoking may be upped to a PG or 'Parental Guidance" audience. The video game industry has a similar rule when it rates games. Universal Pictures allows characters to smoke only if there is a substantial reason for showing it, and then puts a health warning against smoking in the end credits. Cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and Scooby Doo have been edited to remove smoking scenes.
