Some broadcast and cable networks are refusing to run an antismoking ad that uses dark, hard-edged humor to get its message to teenagers.
The 30-second public-service announcement, distributed by the American Cancer Society's Los Angeles office, parodies a cigarette-company sales promotion, offering prizes that range from caskets to chemotherapy. With game-show theme music playing, an athlete shows off an oxygen mask, and a swimsuit model lounges on the beach with a lung ventilator attached to a tube sticking out of her throat.
NBC, CNN and TBS Superstation won't run the ad, saying it isn't right for their viewers. "We didn't feel it was appropriate," says a spokeswoman for NBC, which airs other antismoking messages and even produces some of its own. The network, owned by General Electric, declined to provide specific reasons for its decision. Walt Disney's ABC isn't running the ad either. Spokeswoman Julie Hoover says as a matter of policy it only accepts PSA's from organizations' national headquarters.
Annette Lenahan, PSA coordinator for Time Warner's CNN, says: "The content was great. It just wasn't our style." And a spokesperson for TBS Superstation, also owned by Time Warner, said the network turned the spot down because its "message wasn't clear" and could be misinterpreted by young viewers.
Not everyone, however, thinks the ad, titled "Cancer Cash," goes too far. CBS, for example, is showing it on its network, as is Comedy Central, a joint venture between Viacom and Time Warner. "We like to push the envelope," says Tony Fox, a Comedy Central spokesman.
To get their message across, antismoking groups often are turning to attention-grabbing and unsettling images. But as the ads become more strident and graphic, broadcasters are increasingly facing the dilemma of whether to air them. "Stations are going to start having trouble with the idea that you can just blast away," predicts Ruth Wooden, president of the Advertising Council, a nonprofit organization that produces public-service ads. "They may get more discriminating about what messages they'll screen out."
A growing number of antismoking ads are coming from state governments, many aimed at keeping children and teenagers from lighting up. The ads are shocking by design; one ad that has been running during the past year, for example, shows a woman smoking through a hole in her throat. "What we're finding works best with the teenage population is messages that are very real, with some element of shock and some degree of humor," says Carla Agar, a deputy director of the California health department.
Ms. Agar says the state hasn't had any serious problem getting its ads out on the air and in print. "We operate on the guidelines of common sense and decency," she says. Her colleagues in other states also report few difficulties.
But networks are more sensitive about PSAs, which are run for no charge, says the Advertising Council's Ms. Wooden. "In a sense, it's got their name on it" in a way that paid ads don't, she says. Jeffrey W. McKenna with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta agrees. "Public-service ads are more limited in doing anything that's in-your-face or controversial," he says.
Jeff Goldsmith, who wrote, produced and directed the spot for the American Cancer Society using time and equipment donated by Hollywood film-production companies, says "my intent was not to offend people. It was to get them to laugh and then deliver the message." But he says that, to work, a spot like his has to have an edge. "We're battling so much imagery out there that makes smoking look cool," he says.
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