Nixon signs legislation banning cigarette ads on TV and radio - Apr 01, 1970 - HISTORY.com

On this day in 1970, President Richard Nixon signs legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio. Nixon, who was an avid pipe smoker, indulging in as many as eight bowls a day, supported the legislation at the increasing insistence of public health advocates.

Alarming health studies emerged as early as 1939 that linked cigarette smoking to higher incidences of cancer and heart disease and, by the end of the 1950s, all states had laws prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to minors. In 1964, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agreed that advertisers had a responsibility to warn the public of the health hazards of cigarette smoking. In 1969, after the surgeon general of the United States released an official report linking cigarette smoking to low birth weight, Congress yielded to pressure from the public health sector and signed the Cigarette Smoking Act. This act required cigarette manufacturers to place warning labels on their products that stated “Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health.”

By the early 1970s, the fight between the tobacco lobby and public health interests forced Congress to draft legislation to regulate the tobacco industry and special committees were convened to hear arguments from both sides. Public health officials and consumers wanted stronger warning labels on tobacco products and their advertisements banned from television and radio, where they could easily reach impressionable children. (Tobacco companies were the single largest product advertisers on television in 1969.) Cigarette makers defended their industry with attempts to negate the growing evidence that nicotine was addictive and that cigarette smoking caused cancer. Though they continued to bombard unregulated print media with ads for cigarettes, tobacco companies lost the regulatory battle over television and radio. The last televised cigarette ad ran at 11:50 p.m. during The Johnny Carson Show on January 1, 1971.

Tobacco has played a part in the lives of presidents since the country’s inception. A hugely profitable crop in early America, Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Jackson owned tobacco plantations and used tobacco in the form of snuff or smoked cigars. Regulation of the tobacco industry in the form of excise taxes began during Washington’s presidency and continues to this day. In 1962, Kennedy became the first president to sponsor studies on smoking and public health.

Presidential cigarette smokers include Taft (who quit during his term), Harding, Franklin Roosevelt (who was frequently photographed with his trademark cigarette holder), Hoover (a chain smoker) and Eisenhower. Adams, Coolidge and Ford enjoyed smoking pipes. Presidents Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, Carter and Clinton engaged in the time-honored, after-dinner cigar-smoking ritual at many state functions. Kennedy, who also enjoyed cigars, had his press secretary buy as many Cuban cigars as possible before he strengthened a trade embargo against Cuba in 1961. Though McKinley did not like to smoke cigars, he was known to break them up and chew the tobacco inside. Taylor also preferred to chew his tobacco, and chewing-tobacco spittoons dotted the White House during his tenure—he claimed he could hit his mark from 12 feet. On the contrary, Truman, Hayes and first lady Hilary Clinton banned smoking inside the White House during their respective time there.

First ladies have also enjoyed tobacco in various forms over the years. Though smoking was considered unladylike until well into the 20th century, Dolley Madison, Rachel Jackson and Margaret Taylor all used snuff. Though Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower, Jackie Kennedy, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan and Laura Bush all smoked cigarettes at one time in their lives, most smoked only socially or had quit by the time their husbands became president.

Tobacco has not been the only thing smoked at the White House. In 1978, after country-music entertainer Willie Nelson performed for President Carter there, he is said to have snuck up to the roof and surreptitiously smoked what he called a big fat Austin torpedo, commonly known as marijuana.