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UNJUSTIFIABLE ADVERTISING 

 AND LABELING RESTRICTIONS 



H.R. 2147 would deal tobacco product labeling and advertising a triple- 

 whammy. The bill would subject tobacco product labeling and advertising to regu- 

 latory requirements designed for prescription drugs, which are wholly inappropriate 

 for tobacco products. Those requirements would make tobacco product advertising 

 impossible in some media and inordinately expensive in others. The bill also would 

 prohibit truthful statements about tobacco products unless approved as "health claims" 

 by FDA, even though comparable statements about food are not regulated as health 

 claims. Finally, the bill would pave the way for inconsistent or prohibitive state and 

 local advertising restrictions. 



Advertising and labeling. H.R. 2147 would treat tobacco like a prescription 

 drug for purposes of labeling and advertising regulation. But the regulatory scheme 

 for prescription drugs assumes a product for which therapeutic claims are made and 

 that are available to consumers only on the advice, and under the supervision, of a 

 treating physician. Applying prescription drug requirements to the labeling and 

 advertising of a product for which therapeutic claims are not made would produce 

 absurd results. 



Under the requirements that apply to prescription drugs, tobacco advertising 

 in outdoor and point-of-sale media would be practically impossible, and magazine 

 advertisements would be inordinately expensive. In a briefing paper, moreover, the 



