"Got a Pop History/Pop Culture question from the 60's, 70's, 80's or 90's?" Just askmrpophistory@mrpophistory.com

Winston Cigarette Ad

Newport Cigarette Commerical from the 1960's

From Dave C – Hello Mr. Pop. The television industry has had its share of government rules and regulations – many helped, but some impeded. In all of your pop culture history – can you give impediment examples? I’ve chosen to write a term paper on this subject and I need a little history/insight.

Mr. Pop History – Glad to help a little. The TV industry took a huge hit in back in 1971 because of government rules. First – cigarette advertising went away on January 2, 1971 – immediately taking away 10% of all television advertising monies (radio too).  This of course, was government mandated. As if that weren’t enough – the FCC took away a half-hour of prime-time programming in the Fall of that year. The thinking was, if they gave that time back to the local TV stations – better programming could be had. It didn’t. All it did was give programming syndicaters more time – and made them bigger.
 
I’ve never quite understood the cigarette thing. Here’s something interesting – despite the lack of radio and TV advertising after January 1971 – cigarette smoking actually went up. And, all that money went into print advertising and promotions. If you’re banning radio/TV – why not the others?