Restore antismoking ads
A Times EditorialPublished August 8, 2005
The ads were jarring and undeniably cool: a demon handing an award to the tobacco industry for its number of kills; a roomful of actors dressed like the Marlboro man and learning to tout smoking in a variety of languages; a portly executive dressed in a bikini to show why tobacco companies use pretty models to push their products.
Such commercials were part of Florida's multimillion-dollar Truth advertising campaign, an effort - subsidized by Florida's $13-billion landmark settlement with the tobacco industry - to cut youth smoking by convincing kids that tobacco executives were manipulating them into a deadly, lifelong habit. And it worked, with teen awareness of the campaign at 90 percent and teen smoking rates down by double digits. The Florida Legislature's response? It passed a budget this year that Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law which prohibits any spending on antismoking advertisements.
The provision, which notes that tobacco settlement funds "shall not be used for radio, television, newspaper or other advertising of any type," was mostly a rub-your-nose-in-it formality. Since state lawmakers already had cut funding for antismoking efforts from a $70-million high point in 1998 to $1-million, there was no money for a real advertising effort, anyway. Lawmakers have spent the nearly $400-million annual settlement on other priorities, sparking a drive to amend Florida's Constitution to require 15 percent of the 2005 tobacco payment be set aside each year for antismoking efforts.
Adding still another issue to the state Constitution because lawmakers refuse to do what's right is not the answer. The Legislature should serve public health interests and help steer children away from tobacco by restoring advertising programs that have proven effective at curbing a deadly habit.