>I am in favor of eliminating cigarette advertising (as well as all
>idiotic corporate advertising, though it's impossible to do so under
>capitalism). However, it is not clear whether the absence of
>corporate advertising will make a huge dent in consumption of
>addictive goods & production of addiction.
The former Communist countries have some of the highest smoking rates in the world - and did when they were still Communist. The U.S., where cigarettes are relatively cheap, has one of the lowest. Western European countries, where advertising is more tightly regulated and cigs are more expensive, have higher smoking rates than the U.S.
Doug