New York, NY – A federal judge has rejected New York City’s planned campaign to scare people into quitting smoking with grisly advertisements near where cigarettes are sold, saying the effort is laudable but pre-empted by federal law.
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U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff says “even merchants of morbidity are entitled to the full protection of the law.”
On Wednesday, he blocked a city campaign that would require the ads be posted wherever tobacco products are sold by Saturday.
The judge said the advertisements included images of a brain damaged by a stroke, a decaying tooth in gums and a diseased lung.
A city attorney who handled the case said the city was disappointed by the decision and was considering its legal options.
i agree with the judge
The Judge did not say the Bloomberg can’t pay for ads and have as many as he wants to pay for.
The Judge only blocked Bloomberg from forcing the merchants to have to pay for the ads at their own expense and inconvenience in posting them or their option as to which ads to accept.
Bloomberg wanted to get a free ride, free these ads….
Bloomberg collects plenty of taxes from the death-causing cigarettes and he can use these tax dollars to pay for the ads on the open market, where most advertising agencies would be willingly happy to accept Bloomberg’s advertising dollars.
There is also no law to stop Bloomberg from making a $100 per pack, tax or any other lesser insane tax figure to help pay for the ads.
I hate anyone who smokes because it ruins my life. I get sick when I smell a cigarette. In Brooklyn, where there are probablly more smokers than anywhere else in NYC I can’t breath fresh air. In my apartment building the smoke is everywhere it comes through the doors. Smokers do not care about how much they hurt others when they smoke. I believe that every smoker is depressed and they smoke to alleviate their depression. Does it make sense to smoke when you put your life and the lives of your wives and children at risk? I am nicely asking all smokers to realize that smoking is not morally acceptable and you are despised by non-smokers because it hurts them and others. I beg all smokers to call 311 (after the snow storm) to get information about free help on how to quit. In addition you will save a lot of money and regain the respect that you have lost in your eyes and the eyes of others. Thank You. P.S. There is no rational defense that anyone could give to defend smoking. If you do offer a defense you are only fooling yourself and hurting others. Even though quitting is hard, I do not accept any excuses for smoking. I never smoked even one cigarette in my entire life.
Smoking kills. In Canada, cigarettes will have a package label that is 3/4 of the package size and states, without baby talk, that smoking causes cancer, and you will eventually get cancer from cigarette smoking.
We do that because it’s true.
OK… look… these ads are disgusting. In Europe (specifically the UK) they already produce packs where 3/4 of the pack is a photo of either rotten teeth (although Brits are known to have bad teeth so I don’t see the point), or black lungs, etc. They are such stupid ads that smokers literally laugh at them! I know a guy whose kid COLLECTS empty packs for the different pictures. It is a GAME now! LOL
The government has no business telling ANYONE what they can and cannot do, nor do they have any business forcing their agenda on anyone else.
If you don’t like that your neighbors (in the same building) smoke, you have options.
1. Move to a non-smoking building. There are TONS of them in NY. Many landlords are banning smoking in their apartments now.
2. Petition your own landlord to institute a no-smoking policy indoors.
That’s it. Those are your options. Stop asking the government to step in every time your life of utopia is in some way unsatisfactory.
When you invite the government in on this, you make it 100% OK for them to tell you where to park, how to keep your lawn/sidewalk, what types of insurance you must have, etc.
Stop giving all the power to the government!
i wonder if the judge called a recess to go out to his chambers and grab a smoke.