Shock & Gore - TV Ads - Enough is Enough

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

If I choose to buy cigarettes, the company that provides them is not responsible for my choice. Someone was talking about the "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's" line -- my lungs ain't Caesar's. Nor are my cigarettes, although the government gets a healthy cut of that sale, too.

It's an interesting question... A physically addictive product has different implications than another product. What would the implications be if drug prohibition were ended, and they decided to put the coke back in Coke? (I'm not suggesting that it would be remotely likely, it's just a question.) Coca-cola is one of the (perhaps the largest) adverisers in the world, and the messages they put out reach more people than the most harshly worded press briefing from the FDA or the NIH. Should they have any responsibility to anyone but their shareholders in this hypothetical?