The Pros And Cons Of Smoking Advertising

Smoking cigarettes is the highest cause of preventable deaths in the United States. An approximate 400,000 people die every year in America alone from smoking or from secondhand smoke. When television became popular in the mid 19th century in the United States, commercials for cigarettes became increasingly prevalent. The appearance of these advertisements increased cigarette sales by soaring numbers. In 1969 Congress passed legislation banning advertisements of cigarettes on television and the radio. Although there is still a large sum of people who smoke cigarettes, the ban of cigarette advertisements on television has caused a significant reduction in the amount of new smokers, cigarette experimentation in youth, and deaths due to smoking. Cigarette advertisements on television always seemed so appealing. One is painted such a glamorous and fashionable picture of, say a beautiful woman asking a handsome man to light her cigarette. It is made to look like something that makes one hip or cool, to even look romantic. James Hodge from the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics states: “Ads depicted smokers as carefree, independent, and rebellious.” (370). People were

There are less people who are being persuaded by these television commercials to take up smoking for the first time. They aren 't being told by the companies that their cigarettes are cool and glamorous. The ban on ads has stopped today’s youth from being enticed into experimenting with smoking cigarettes. In turn, this has caused the number of deaths attributed smoking in both men and women to decrease for the first time in United States History. There is still a lot that can be done to decrease these numbers even more, but the ban on cigarette advertisements on television have made a huge impact in depleting the amount of people smoking cigarettes, especially in children and young