This has been one of my pet peeves (some folks say I have a bunch of them) for many years: legal products that the government and/or the do-gooders do not want you and me to know about.

First off, before you get all cranky with me, let me say I smoked cigarettes for over 30 years until my 6-year old daughter Alex, (I call her Alex but her real name is Alexandra the Perfect Child!) asked me to quit almost 11 years ago. So I did! The government and the do-gooders decided this is a product not to be advertised on radio and TV. Why you ask? Because of some misguided notion that the end of the world would happen if young people saw and heard the ads. Well guess what? They do see the ads in a number of different ways: magazines, billboards, newspapers, websites and many other places. But hey, don’t get me wrong, cigarettes are not good for you – BUT they are legal!

Now along comes Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts (where I think they have a monopoly on stupid ideas) and he thinks there is a link between obesity and the advertising practices of America’s junk food manufactures. Okay so junk food is not good for you…we get that part, but how come we forget that businesses should be allowed to advertise perfectly legal products? Hey, don’t tell me I can’t see ads for Twinkies!

I echo the sentiments of the Television Business Report™, an e-newsletter published by TVBR. The issue is not advertising. I have yet to see a 6-year old in the grocery store paying for this junk food…it’s the parents that are the problem. Much like TV, if parents took a bigger role in watching what kids eat, listen to and watch we would all be better off.

And my final example, Senator Edward Kennedy (see comment about Massachusetts above) has introduced legislation that would impose a two-year moratorium or longer on advertising for new medicines and would also require all prescription drug ads be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That’s just great. Let’s find a great new drug that might cure some dreadful disease (pick one) but we can’t tell anybody about it for two years or more, and when we do we’ll have the government write the ads.

Again, it’s just my opinion. But legal products should have the right to be advertised.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.