Trouble from an Old Friend

The political winds seemed to be blowing just the way the tobacco industry wanted last month, when the House of Representatives voted to protect cigarette advertising from assaults by U.S. regulatory agencies. The House bill was designed to thwart the efforts of the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, both of which wanted to outlaw all cigarette ads on TV and radio. But last week the tobacco men encountered new trouble from a usually friendly corner: the broadcast industry itself.

Blackout. The National Association of Broadcasters' self-policing TV and radio "code-review boards" proposed that the industry begin a gradual phase-out of cigarette commercials over a three-year period starting next January, and eliminate all cigarette ads by September 1973. Adoption of the plan by the full N.A.B. is only a formality. The N.A.B. program would affect the three TV networks and about 400 independent TV stations, as well as 6,272 radio stations that subscribe to the N.A.B. code. Many of the non-code stations, which account for 36% of TV and 64% of radio stations, would follow. A complete blackout would mean the sacrifice of some $300 million a year in broadcast ad revenues--about $200 million by TV alone, which depends on cigarette commercials for 11% of its advertising.

The broadcasters' decision reflected their feeling that Government controls were not far off. For all its success in the House, the tobacco bill faces some difficult hurdles in the Senate, where anti-smoking sentiment is stronger. Senate cigarette foes, in fact, promise either to pass a tougher law or do nothing--and thus allow the regulatory agencies to impose almost any rules they please. Understandably, N.A.B. officials had been working on their blackout proposal for some time, and their announcement last week came soon after Utah Democrat Frank Moss, head of the Senate Consumer Subcommittee, sent telegrams advising them that they had better "do something" about smoking ads.

Next Target. The industry timetable would obviously ease the shock of ending the ads--which may not be much of a shock after all. Presumably, the broadcasters would also be allowed to phase out those FCC-required free anti-smoking commercials, which take up $70 million worth of air time a year. Some but by no means all of the loss from cigarette commercials would be made up by the fast-diversifying tobacco companies themselves. As they cut back their cigarette ad budgets, they would spend more on their non-tobacco products.

No fadeout can come fast enough to please the cigarette's most zealous opponents. Utah's Moss feels that the N.A.B. plan "may take too long." And he is anxious to move on to his next target: cigarette ads in printed media.

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