Tobacco: The Dike Breaks

In an unexpected about-face, the tobacco industry last week moved toward a nearly unconditional surrender in the heated battle over cigarette advertising. Speaking for the nine U.S. cigarette manufacturers, Philip Morris Chairman Joseph Cullman III told the Senate Consumer Subcommittee that the industry was prepared to end all advertising on TV and radio on Dec. 31, if the broadcasters would go along, and in any case by September 1970, when current contracts expire.

The proposal meant victory for critics of the cigarette, notably the Federal Communications Commission, which earlier this year threatened to order all cigarette commercials off the air waves. Both the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission promised to drop their proposals for stern regulatory action if the industry could make its plan work. Utah Democrat Frank Moss, the nonsmoking Mormon who heads the consumer subcommittee and is the leading tobacco opponent in the Senate, said happily that “the dike has been broken.”

Unhappy Broadcasters. Cullman’s capitulation caught broadcasters by surprise. They had proposed to phase out cigarette ads over a three-year period beginning in January 1970. Such ads mean some $225 million a year to media broadcasters, and they had hoped that their schedule would ease the economic jolt. When the tobaccomen made their proposal, they asked for protection against antitrust action. They were concerned that broadcasters might sue for treble damages on grounds that the cigarette companies acted in collusion. The possibility may not be so remote. The National Association of Broadcasters is determined to fight any antitrust exemptions for cigarette makers.

Opinions vary on just how—and how much—sales will be affected by an advertising fadeout on the air waves. In Britain, where cigarette ads were banned from TV in 1965, sales dipped at first, then recovered and went to new highs. In the U.S., per capita sales began declining last year, partly because young sters no longer feel the social need to smoke. They have been increasingly concerned about the health hazards, particularly since mid-1967, when the networks were forced to air antismoking commercials on TV. Indeed, the tobaccomen’s decision to turn off their tremendously expensive and competitive TV campaigns may well have been helped along by the prospect that broadcasters would in turn be allowed to jettison the antismoking spots. FTC Chairman Paul Rand Dixon suggests that broadcasters should keep right on giving free air time to antismoking ads.

Tobaccomen may try to attract customers by spending more heavily for coupons and perhaps contests. They may also bring out more and more new brands. Chairman Robert Walker of American Brands (Pall Mall, Lucky Strike) says that “the battleground for cigarette sales will probably switch to other media.”

Mostly Adults. Newspaper and magazine publishers, unlike broadcasters, are not federally licensed and are protected under the First Amendment’s freedom-of-speech provision. Few publications plan voluntarily to stop such advertising in the near future, since it brought them $50 million in revenues last year. They also argue that printed ads appeal mostly to adults and are less intrusive than TV commercials, which often run while children are viewing. Even so, Senator Moss has warned publishers to avoid accepting “massive print advertising campaigns” and urged them to “maintain current ratios” of cigarette to non-cigarette advertising. Quite likely, publishers will feel increasing moral pressure to drop cigarette ads.