Cigarette Advertising

Cigarette advertising restrictions do not have and intended effect, and despite that in many societies there is an increase in cigarette consumption. Only who is affected with those restrictions are the cigarette companies which are in danger of becoming a form of commercial censorship. However, I do not want to claim against consumer protection laws against false or misleading advertising claims. The end result of cigarette advertising restrictions and any other legal products leads to a limited choice, block of free flow of information, emasculate competition and canceling its benefits. Besides this it also penalizes the advertising media by starving them of revenue, and restrains commercial investments and employment. Not only that it endangered current investments, but it also places powers of censorship in the hands of self-centered pressure groups or legislative committees, who have no commercial experience or responsibility to be able to exercise them. The intended effects of cigarette advertising restrictions also have harmful side effects. For example in Croatia for last couple of months on the television you could find commercials with detailed development of tumor on lounges and ruining of aortas. Theses commercials did nothing but discussed large number of population, and even non smokers couldn’t look at the full add, while the smokers felt discriminated and exploited to society as disease and treat. There are also adds which offer 24-7 telephone lines for people who wish to quit smoking, and in these situations they were offering some pride winning rewards, which was a short term stimulant for people to quit smoking. How really can we think that people are that narrow minded that they will do what ever the media tells them to, and that they were not aware of their health risk before. People die of cancer caused by smoking, the tumor is painful and incurable; while on the other side many old people smoked almost all of their life and didn’t face this...