Is Turn-About Fair Play?

[Smalso]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/04/02/state1814EST0128.DTL

From:http://www.stellaawards.com/

[Dancing David]

Looks like Big Money making the Big Whine, next they will be asking for more corporate welfare to compensate for the loss of revenue that the American Cancer Society causes them.

Peace
dancing David

[Walter Wayne]

The tobacco companies point to an ad that shows children in a school yard catching cigarettes that are raining down on them, with a narrator saying: "We have to sell cigarettes to your children. That's why we sell cigarettes near your schools."Well, if the ad is putting such words into the tobacco companies mouths then it is pretty low tactic. Don't now what the laws on what you can and can't say in an ad are, but I think it is a legimate gripe.

Walt

[a_unique_person]

Originally posted by Walter Wayne
Well, if the ad is putting such words into the tobacco companies mouths then it is pretty low tactic. Don't now what the laws on what you can and can't say in an ad are, but I think it is a legimate gripe.

Walt

The tobacco companies are the kings of dirty tactics, for example, saying they don't know if nicotine is addictive, when their own internal research had shown it is, and trying to work out ways to make their products more addictive.

Many shops indulge in the shameful practice of selling individual cigarettes to school children.

[Jim_MDP]

Originally posted by a_unique_person

Many shops indulge in the shameful practice of selling individual cigarettes to school children.

Uh...where?
In all my life (I've been smoking for decades), I've never heard of such a thing.

[a_unique_person]

Originally posted by JamesMGMDP


Uh...where?
In all my life (I've been smoking for decades), I've never heard of such a thing.

Well, we have very high tobacco taxes, (To help discourage smoking and pay for the high health costs, and, well, to raise taxes, I suppose), so a pack costs about $9.

[Jim_MDP]

Originally posted by a_unique_person


Well, we have very high tobacco taxes, (To help discourage smoking and pay for the high health costs, and, well, to raise taxes, I suppose), so a pack costs about $9.

Right then, so it's an Aussie shame? Would that be right?

;)

[Smalso]

a_unique_person:
Many shops indulge in the shameful practice of selling individual cigarettes to school children.

There are convience stores hereabouts that sell individual cigarettes, mostly in areas frequented by winos and down-and-outs. Some of these cigarettes have found their way into the hands of children. Wasn't long ago there was an item in the local paper about a store clerk being arrested for selling cigarettes to a 13-year-old. As it turned out, he sold two singles.

[voidx]

Hmmm a couple things. First off, no one denies the under-handedness the tobacco industry has displayed in the past, or even perhaps the present. Does this make it ok for anti-tobacco lobbyists to sink to the same tactics? NO.

Many shops indulge in the shameful practice of selling individual cigarettes to school children.

Shops, not tobacco companies, put the blame here where it belongs. I'm a legitimate alcohol producer, is it my fault then if a liquor store goes against the Law, and sells my product to children? No.

Yes, have your anti smoking ads, have your anti tobacco ads, but don't damn well lie, or make crap up. Currently here in Canada they are plastering the airwaves with commercials stating, "Second hand smoke kills, it causes cancer, and it kills". There is as of yet no solid proof of that, but they don't care, its a fantastic scare tactic. Do I smoke? No. Do I think people for their own good should stop smoking? Yes. Do I have the right to force them too since its still a legal product? No. Am I ok with ads that warn and suggest people against the real dangers of smoking and tobacco, and the actual bad tactics the tobacco companies utilize? Yes. Does it piss me off when they make crap up to scare people into seeing their point of view? Yes.

[Jim_MDP]

Thanks Smalso, and AUP for bringing it up. I stand enlightened.


Originally posted by voidx
I'm a legitimate alcohol producer, is it my fault then if a liquor store goes against the Law, and sells my product to children? No.


Just curious...what do you produce?

Also, can I assume you would also be against the US legal actions (by cities/HCI, etc.) meant to bankrupt the firearms mfgs because their products were illegally used?

[voidx]

Just curious...what do you produce?

It was an example, I myself don't make alcohol.

As for firearms, their kind of a different category from booze and cigarettes, honestly now. Guns are made for protection, and their designed intent is to kill, so that's a lot fuzzier area than say tobacco. I really don't see how you can deny, whatever your position on the issue is, that a commercial showing cigarettes raining down on children, and claiming that tobacco companies sell cigarettes close to schools, which isn't true, is sensationalist! Yes encourage people to quit, but don't make things up and us scare tactics. Present the actual facts, and don't try to deflect the issue by switching it to something else entirely like guns, thank you very much.