Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1962)

NAB head sees cigarette ads as designed to influence young The personal views of NAB President LeRoy Collins on the ethics of cigarette advertising that influences school-age children were the center of industry controversy last week. Here is the text of his remarks, delivered Nov. 19 at the final NAB Fall Conference in Portland, Ore.: "Our radio and tv codes are keystones in our NAB program. They should be projected and lived up to, not only as the broadcaster's charter of self-regulation, but as a mark of quality broadcasting for the guidance of the people. It is our responsibility to improve our codes to the point that any eligible broadcaster would not consider failing to be publicly identified as a member. "It is my personal view that our codes should be much more than sets of legalistic standards and delineations of good taste and estimated public tolerance. I think the codes should serve as a broadcast conscience as well. Under them and to them, the individual broadcaster and all related enterprises should be able to look for, and find, ethical and moral leadership. "For example, if we are honest with ourselves, we cannot ignore the mounting evidence that tobacco provides a serious hazard to health. Can we either in good conscience ignore the fact that progressively more and more of our high school age (and lower) children are now becoming habitual cigarette smokers? The most recent statistics I have seen, point out that 20% of boys have started smoking in the 9th grade, and almost 30% of all girls smoke before they are graduated from high school. We also know that this condition is being made continually worse under the impact of advertising designed primarily to influence young peopie. "Certainly the moral responsibility rests first on the tobacco manufacturer. Certainly it also rests on the advertising agencies. Certainly it also rests on the outstanding sports figures who permit their hero status to be prostituted. "It is also true that broadcasting, and other advertising media, cannot be expected to sit in judgment and vouch for the propriety of all advertising presented to the public over their facilities. "But where others have persistently failed to subordinate their profit motives to the higher purpose of the general good health of our young people, then I think the broadcaster should make corrective moves on his own. This we could do under code amendments, and I feel we should proceed to do so, not because we are required to, but because a sense of moral responsibility demands it." that Mr. Collins evidently believes that smoking is bad for the health. "He accepts it," the agency executive noted, "I don't." "Who said children should smoke? They shouldn't. They shouldn't drink whiskey either," he pointed out. He indicated it was up to parents to control their children and direct them and not advertisements. The agency president added, "It was a nice speech for Mr. Collins. Let him bave fun." Company Viewpoint ■ A spokesman for one tobacco company, who requested anonymity, explained it would "be "most difficult" to implement Gov. Collins's proposal even if the company agreed with the NAB president's remarks concerning tobacco's harmful effects. He added: "We don't agree with him, by the way." Tobacco, he said, has to be advertised on television and on radio as a mass product during the periods of the day when a mass audience is tuned in. He continued: "How can a tobacco advertise on a prime, nighttime television show and keep children from watching? We don't know how to do it." As industry interest in the cigarette situation increased, Gov. Collins replied to a Broadcasting reporter this way: "This was not a spur of the moment decision or the result of a specific recommendation by anybody else. The subject has been on my mind and in my heart for a long time. "I was not pretending to express a position of the association, the board or the codes but I feel the president of this organization should have a range for the expression of his personal convictions about matters he regards of importance to broadcasting. "I do not oppose all advertising of cigarettes. That would be ridiculous. Certainly there is a wide scope of propriety for cigarette advertising. But when a moral issue becomes involved, then I think the broadcasters should take a stand and I think advertising especially beamed to induce young schoolage children to smoke does present a moral issue. Portland's Subject ■ "At each NAB fall conference I have taken up a different phase of broadcasting and I decided to use this subject at Portland. As I expected, the reaction has been mixed. There has been both approval and disapproval from broadcasters. Of course I am anxious at all times to act in such a way as to merit the approval of our members. But I shall never want this or seek it at the cost of failing or refusing honestly to express any deep convictions which I hold and this is just such a case. "I am confident that this is an attitude which the great majority of our members prefer me to reflect. "I plan to discuss the subject with the Television Code Board when it meets Dec. 1 1 and may have a specific recommendation. " Mr. DeWitt's letter to Mr. Swezey, written July 12, suggested tobacco advertising in all media had gone beyond the point of credulity and could be harmful to youth. He contended all media have a responsibility to the public to reduce the attractiveness of tobacco advertising to young people, citing a little league baseball spot in which an adult smokes on the players bench. Points to Britain ■ Tv and radio, being more aware of their public responsibilities, should take the lead in curbing this type of advertising, Mr. Dewitt suggested. He added he had no desire to be a lone crusader. He pointed to the Independent Television Authority's plan in Great Britain to cooperate with the cigarette industry in a fivepoint program designed to control advertising involving sports heroes and other popular figures as well as to refrain from suggesting smoking is inseparable from masculinity, desirable for young people, socially essential or the source of ecstatic pleasure. Mr. DeWitt's letter mentioned an article in the July Scientific American showing that cigarettes are responsible for deaths in many ways and are not merely a factor in lung cancer. Tobacco Institute ■ The statement by George V. Allen, president, Tobacco Institute, took sharp issue with Gov. Collins's views on both cigarette advertising and the medical aspects of smoking. His statement follows: "While cigarette advertising is an activity of the individual companies, it is my conviction that the president of the National Association of Broadcasters, in a statement focused on highschool age children, is incorrect when he suggests that cigarette advertising is designed primarily to influence them. "The tobacco industry regards smok 26 (THE MEDIA) BROADCASTING, November 26, 1962