William Everett Bailey

About the author: William Everett Bailey is a longtime tobacco control advocate and the author of The Invisible Drug, from which this viewpoint is excerpted.

Cigarette advertising encourages people to smoke. Tobacco companies use images in their advertising that connote sophistication, independence, attractiveness, and rebelliousness, and these images persuade people to buy cigarettes. Moreover, cigarettes are prominently featured in movies, and tobacco company sponsorship ensures that cigarette brand names and poster ads pervade sporting events such as tennis tournaments and auto racing. To counter antismoking advocates' attempts to ban or restrict cigarette advertising, tobacco companies downplay the deadly effects of tobacco use and emphasize smoking as a legal individual choice and right. Tobacco promotional efforts have been so effective that even nonsmokers often view smoking as innocuous and socially acceptable. Advertising affects everyone...