Why They Don't Advertise Cigarettes On TV Anymore

Why They Don't Advertise Cigarettes On TV Anymore

The push for reforms in the advertisement of tobacco products had started well before all the modern-day tools that have been used to discourage people from buying these items. According to History, some of the earliest reforms came in the 1950s, when it became illegal in all U.S. states for minors to purchase cigarettes; in the 1960s, cigarette makers became required by federal law to place warning labels on their products that read, "Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health." 

However, if you come to think of it, that didn't seriously deter adult buyers from buying Marlboros, Winstons, Camels, and Luckies at their nearest convenience store ... or discourage underage smokers from sneaking ciggies out of their parents' packs and lighting up in the bathroom between classes. After all, TV commercials and radio ads were still making smoking look like the cool, macho, and/or sophisticated thing to do. So with that in mind, public health watchdogs felt that those surgeon general's warnings were far from enough to dissuade consumers, especially young people, from smoking.


With the cries from anti-smoking advocates growing louder as Americans young and old kept engaging in the nasty habit, President Richard Nixon signed legislation on April 1, 1970, that prohibited the advertisement of cigarettes on television and radio. Prior to this, Big Tobacco valiantly tried to counter the growing amount of medical literature suggesting that cigarette smoking is addictive and dangerous to one's health, but in the end, it wasn't enough, as Nixon — himself a pipe smoker — agreed that the radio and TV ads had to stop. Nine months later, at 11:50 p.m. on January 1, 1971, the last televised cigarette ad in the U.S. aired during a commercial break on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."