Alcohol and Tobacco advertisments are widely known to have more cons than pros. However, the companies behind these products have the consitutional right to show consumers what they have to offer. With issues like underage use and suggestive advertising, more alcohol and tobacco advertisments are being banned from different media. I will discuss these issues in the following research paper including information from different countries and opposite stand points.

Since tobacco and alcohol use can lead to disease and death and since you need to be a certain age to consume the products, advertising for alcohol and tobacco have always been frowned apon. If it is not accusations of targeting minors or concealing important health risks, it is whether or not the advertising induces addiction or abuse.

In 1989, the US Surgeon General reported that "the collective empirical, experiential and logical evidence makes it more likely than not that avertising and promotional activities do stimulate cigarette consumption." The Surgeon General suggests seven ways how the tobacco companies use advertising to encourage smoking. 1) Encourages children and young adults to expriement tobacc

The Department of Health and Human Services (1995) had conluded that "research has yet to document a strong relationship between alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption." However, concluding from the Service's information, Dr. Esther Thorson, University of Missouri, says that if the research was designed to take account of what the advertiser is trying to accomplish and if it examined the relationship between the basis of the advertisement and the consumer for the message is targeted toward, investigators would "find whopping effects."

There are some companies who does not choose to advertise in magazines and on buses. Philip Morris USA, the company that owns the premium cigarette brand Marlboro, has not run one magazine advertisement for the brand of cigarettes this year. The tobacco company continues to promote their products through retail promotions and discounts. Since Philip Morris did not use their prime source of advertising, they are investing 350 million dollars in the second half of this year in price promotions and events that reward their customer's loyalty. Price promotions are the leading marketing tactic for major cigarette companies since the larger companies need to compete against the cheaper-generic brands made from other companies. Even though Philip Morris has not advertised in magazines, they still have small advertisements around our normal everyday environment, still subjecting minors to tobacco. 7

"America's parents should be disturbed by these findings," said Jim O'Hara, the Center's executive director. "They aren't seeing these ads but their children are because that's where the industry is putting them - in the magazines their kids read." O'Hara states that more than 16 percent of eighth graders have been drunk at least once in 2001 and almost 40 percent of tenth graders said they have been drunk. "They don't need to be bombarded with the industry's good-time party ads."5

Rosemary Paolillo, one of only two members to vote against overturning the ban, has negative views against alcohol advertising. "I have a problem with alcohol beverages being advertised," said Paolillo. "I don't know how it could be put on to enourage people to drink wisely."

Concerning alcohol advertisements, The Federal Trade Commission (1985) found "no reliable basis to conclude that alcohol advertising significantly affects consumption, let alone abuse." The FTC staff conducted an analysis of data on the effects of alcohol advertising on consumption and abuse. According to what the FTC found, there is not enough sufficient evidence to initiate an alcohol advertisement ban or restriction. The F

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