California is unloading on the tobacco industry with a new $22 million ad campaign that takes aim at smokers -- directly below the belt.
A centerpiece of the latest batch of billboards, radio ads and television spots unveiled yesterday is a theme that smoking can play havoc with a guy's sex life.
With special effects that make cigarettes suddenly sag and dangle from a young man's lips when a sexy woman steps into the picture -- the message is that smoking is linked to impotence.
"The Marlboro Man may not be everything he's cracked up to be," said Kim Belshe, director of the state Department of Health Services, which coordinates the ad campaign.
The state health department cites a study of Vietnam veterans that showed smokers reported impotence 50 percent more than nonsmokers.
Belshe said the purpose of the new ad was that "men not inclined to quit to save their lives, save their heart, save their lungs may quit to save their sex life."
The ads didn't satisfy critics who complain that the Wilson administration has become too meddlesome over the style and content of the anti-smoking ads, paid for by a 25-cents-a-pack tax on tobacco products.
"There have been a number of stronger, hard-hitting approaches that have been quashed by the administration," said Paul Knepprath, a lobbyist for the American Lung Association.
The new campaign also drew fire from University of California at San Francisco professor Stanton Glantz, a leading critic of the tobacco industry.
"Since the department pulled back and toned down the program in 1994, we have seen the first increase in smoking in California since they started collecting data in 1974,"he said.
Glantz said a new batch of ads could have been ready as early as last September, had not Wilson cabinet secretary Sandra Smoley intervened. "What we have is a campaign that will do the a minimum of damage to the tobacco industry," Glantz said.
Belshe stressed several times the 10-year-old media campaign has attacked the tobacco industry for marketing to children and lying about the dangers of its products.
Smoley told reporters the "determination of what ads went on fell with Kim" and herself. And, she added, the winning spots were selected based on their effectiveness.
The spots themselves were created by several ad agencies from around the state. They will receive roughly $1.3 million for their efforts.
And there are several choice shots at tobacco companies.
"They can bury their victims, but they can't bury the truth," reads one ad that features "Aaron," a 60-year-old man lying in a hospital bed, terminally ill with lung cancer.
Aaron reads a statement from the head of a tobacco company in which the executive says "it is unclear" whether anybody dies from smoking.
"Well, let me clear things up for him. My doctor says I have less than one year to live," Aaron concludes.
But the ad that won the most kudos from health groups was the one linking smoking to male impotence.
A woman in a low-cut gown walks majestically into what appears to be a swanky restaurant. Across the bar, a tuxedo-clad man taps a cigarette on his ornate cigarette case.
The man and woman's eyes lock. He lights up the cigarette.
It goes limp.
"Cigarettes. Still think they're sexy?" the ad concludes.
Comments on this posting?
Click here to post a public comment on the Trash Talk Bulletin Board.
Click here to send a private comment to the Junkman.
Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of the author.
Copyright © 1998 Steven J. Milloy. All rights reserved. Site developed and hosted by WestLake Solutions, Inc.