Something I Had Forgotten

[Mike]

Cigarette commercials. It has been a long time since those were allowed on television.

[Truckman]

I hadn't thought of those in years......Ben

[UTAH]

Yeah, for some smokers those were life-altering days.

Some of the diehard smokers I knew would check into the office, then spend most of the day out in their car smoking. And, it changed the way our prisons/jails ran. For, once tobacco was contraband, it became the primary substance smuggled inside.

Incidentally, there's only one Beverly Hillbillies star still alive - 85-year-old Max Baer Jr. (Jethro).

Hunter

[Mike]

I'm a little bit curious how banning cigarette commercials passes 1st Amendment muster. I can't think of any other product that is banned. Liquor is a self-imposed ban, they can advertise if they want to.

[Kevin]

Product advertising is not covered under the 1A since it is commercial speech.

[Mike]

Product advertising is not covered under the 1A since it is commercial speech.

Well, you sent me on a quest to find out what "commercial speech" is, and how it is treated under the 1st Amendment.

That proved to be quite interesting, and I will read more tomorrow. It does seem at first glance that the courts have steadily decreased the government's ability to restrict commercial speech almost to the point where today it is virtually unrestricted.

Example: In Lorillard Tobacco Co.v. Reilly (2001) the Court struck down various restrictions on cigar and smokeless tobacco products on First Amendment commercial free speech grounds.