April 1: Cigarette Ads Banned on TV

On this date in History ... April 1, 1970:

President Nixon signs the bill banning cigarette ads on TV & radio.  

Tobacco companies were the single largest product advertisers on television in 1969. The last televised cigarette ad (Virginia Slims) ran at 11:50 pm during the Carson Show on Jan 1, 1971.  

“Ms. Magazine” originally decided not to accept cigarette ads. They had particular problem with the Virginia Slims slogan of “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby”, not so much for the “Baby” part of it (which was a factor) but because it depicted “smoking a symbol of progress for women.”  Eventually the magazine accepted the ad money.  

Gloria Steinem said, in a Ms. Magazine editorial, that cigarette ads “…became a disproportionate support of magazines the moment they were banned on television, & few magazines could compete & survive without them.”