A BAN on tobacco advertising has clearly taken on symbolic importance for everyone involved in the war against smoking and, as a result, some important arguments have been overlooked.
Government has a responsibility to educate people about the health risks of smoking but banning the promotion of a legal product is a step too far. A ban would set a precedent that could extent to other products such as alcohol, fatty foods and fast cars.
Health professionals claim that a ban will reduce the number of young people who smoke but all the evidence suggests that teenagers start smoking because of peer pressure and a desire to appear "grown up".
Advertising has nothing to do with it. Advertising was banned in the former Soviet Union but that didn't stop a large majority of the male population from smoking.
Most important, prohibiting tobacco advertising will be counter productive. It will remove all those government health warnings from thousands of billboards, magazines and newspapers and, as a young smoker myself, it is those warnings - not the obscure images featured in the advertisements - that sticks in my head.
JOSEPHINE GAFFIKIN,
FOREST (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco).
Audley House,
13 Palace Street,
London.
SW1E 5HX
Jo@forest-on-smoking.org.uk
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