Letters

From the July 1998 issue

Jacob Sullum's article "Cowboys, Camels, and Kids" (April) was an informative and rational look into how cigarette advertising influences children. Only 20 myself, I don't find it difficult remembering those wonder years. Where I grew up, most kids tried smoking a few times, and many made it a regular habit. Yet I believe cigarette advertising had little effect on the choices made by my peers.

A very powerful point indicating this, not found in Sullum's article, is the level of other drug use among children, especially marijuana. In Santa Cruz County, California, where I grew up, marijuana use was equal to or greater than cigarette smoking. This is without any multinational corporations attempting to "brainwash" our children with billions of dollars in advertisements.

When I was in high school, nearly all social activities were centered around drugs (including cigarettes and alcohol). So, kids did drugs to fit in, fitting in being the main concern of most teenagers. They could care less about the Marlboro Man or Joe Camel.

James Markey
Santa Cruz, CA

I found it disconcerting that Jacob Sullum focused on the evidence that advertising causes people to smoke without seriously considering whether the question is relevant to public policy.

It may be an interesting academic exercise to consider when and how advertising influences human behavior. It is, however, a violation of free speech to restrict any advertising on the basis of the value of the message it conveys or how that message may influence behavior.

It may be reasonable to restrict advertising based on its intrusion upon personal privacy or its imposition of aesthetically offensive stimuli in public areas or in private areas without the owner's consent. It may also be reasonable to restrict advertising when it is intentionally, explicitly, and objectively deceitful. It is not reasonable, however, to restrict advertising because it may persuade people to reach a conclusion that other people consider to be detrimental to the person who was persuaded.

Cigarette advertising consistently sends the message that smoking produces pleasure. Yet it is impossible to objectively determine whether smoking is indeed pleasurable for every person. I have never seen a cigarette advertisement explicitly stating that smoking is a healthy or an unhealthy practice.

More importantly, it would be a major violation of individual freedom to give government the authority to decide what behaviors should be allowed on the basis of the government's judgment of what produces pleasure.

What is at stake here is our freedom to lead our own lives as we see fit, even when others are certain, in their own minds, that we are hurting ourselves. If we lose the right to advocate smoking, we will next lose the right to advocate eating candy, and then the right to advocate watching football while sitting on a couch eating potato chips.

If you willingly give up the right to think for yourself on any issue, you will soon lose the right to think at all.

Richard Marliave
Oakland, CA

Jacob Sullum replies:I thank Mr. Markey and Mr. Marliave for their letters. Regarding marijuana and tobacco, two additional points come to mind:

1) Since we cannot stop teenagers from smoking marijuana, a drug that is entirely illegal, it is rather unrealistic to suppose that we can stop them from smoking tobacco. Yet some anti-smoking activists insist that "we should not tolerate any underage smoking," as if preventing adolescents from lighting up is simply a matter of having the right attitude.

2) The recent increase (since 1992) in teenage tobacco smoking has been accompanied by an increase in teenage marijuana smoking. Yet these kids have been more propagandized against tobacco and marijuana than any generation in U.S. history. Advertising can hardly explain these trends, but a backlash against "Just Say No" might.