Anatomy of a media backlash.(Medicine and the Media)

The Labour party manifesto said: "Smoking is the greatest single cause of preventable illness and premature death in the UK We will therefore ban tobacco advertising" In the Queen's speech this manifesto commitment was reiterated. There then followed squawks of protest in the media, with comments from the directors of sporting events likely to be affected by the ban and representatives of the tobacco industry. This is immediately understandable once you think about conflict of interest--how dare the government intrude on the hitherto profitable relationship between newspaper proprietors and tobacco companies? Newspaper advertising sales are worth about 3.5bn [pounds sterling] a year. Losing the 50m [pounds sterling] of that which is spent on promoting tobacco is not disastrous, but 1% cuts do hurt--ask anyone in the …