January 2, 1971

January 2, 1971, is an important date for advertising people to remember because it was the day that the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act went into effect. This act did not allow cigarette companies to advertise on TV or radio beginning on that day. But where did this act come from? And what happened after?

Fans of the the show Mad Men or those who have watched talk shows in the 60's will know that smoking in the 60's was very commonplace. In fact, the 50's influence of "the coolness of smoking" transferred to the 60's. But, there were changes coming in the 60's. In 1964, Luther Leonidas Terry (the Surgeon General) issued a report about the effects of smoking as it related to chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. The following year, Congress passed the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act which forced all cigarette packages sold in the US to have warning labels. The FTC recommended a change, and the act was amended to say that the warning came straight from the US Surgeon General.

A strong advocate of a stronger act was the FCC who said that TV stations were breaking the 'Fairness Doctrine' by airing cigarette commercials. In case you're wondering, the Fairness Doctrine was an FCC policy beginning in 1949 that said that broadcasters had to present controversial issues of public importance in a balanced and honest manner. Since the new view of cigarette health risks was looked at as an issue of public importance, the FCC looked at the airing of cigarette ads without a counterpoint for the dangers of cigarettes to be breaking the doctrine.

In 1969, Congress introduced the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which would ban cigarette ads from TV and radio, mostly because of the FCC's urges that the ads broke the Fairness Doctrine. The act was signed on April 1, 1970, but didn't go into effect until January 2, 1971. The reason for the delay was a compromise with broadcasters. Since the college football bowl games were January 1, Congress allowed the broadcasters that last day for advertising.

So, at 11:59 pm, January 1, 1971, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson went to break like it had done many times since he took over in 1962. At that moment, a minute-long Virginia Slims commercial aired. Then at midnight, the act took affect and no longer were commercials to feature cigarette companies.

The other element the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act did was to require stronger warning labels on the cigarette packaging. By 1981, it was determined that the warnings and lack of TV and radio advertising did nothing to lower the amount of smokers. A new act followed in 1984 to educate youth on the health risks and a new series of warnings followed on the packaging.

Without TV and radio ads, the tobacco companies wanted to still get their message out there. For many years, the companies had many different mascots, sometimes even cartoon characters (Joe Camel for instance). Documents prove that tobacco companies were trying to soften their image with children, and in 1991, the Journal of American Medical Association reported in a study that more children aged 5 and 6 could recognize Joe Camel than could identify Mickey Mouse or Fred Flintstone. During the period of 1988-1993, the number of adolescent customers grew from 1% overall to 13% overall.

As the fight continues today between the tobacco companies and the government, other industries such as the alcohol companies police themselves very well by not marketing to anyone under 21, not advertising on shows whose audience is primarily underage, and they encouraged "responsible drinking" campaigns. Alcohol companies saw what happened to the tobacco industry and didn't want to have that happen to them too. On the other hand, alcohol companies are the biggest advertisers for sports, so it would be a huge lack of money for the sports teams.

Either way, it's been a long road for the tobacco companies in the past 60 years. In the 50's, Winston could have an ad with cartoon characters Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble enjoying their cigarettes on TV, and now you don't see many ads for cigarettes at all. But you can look back at January 2, 1971, for the end of the TV and radio ads.

And if you don't believe me on Fred and Barney smoking, click here to see the commercial.