The advertisements of cigarettes on TV and radio commercials stopped over 20 years ago and at that time the underage smoking did not stop. It is stated that in November 1998, the tobacco industry agreed once again to set restrictions on how cigarettes may be sold and marketed, barring companies from targeting youth in advertising and using cartoons in promotions (Babington, A07). The cigarettes companies were also prohibited from sponsoring sports teams, stadiums, or events such as NASCAR in which participants are underage. Accompanying this problem is the moral issue that banning advertisements on the radio and TV is not enough to prevent underage smoking. The industry needs to reveal in their advertisements the negative aspect of tobacco products. As stated in "Moral Issues in Business," "When advertisers conceal facts, they suppress information that is unflattering to their products. That is, they neglect to mention or distract consumers' attention away from information, knowledge of which would probably make their products less desirable." (Shaw, Barry 474). Every advertiser wants their advertisement to be very attractive to the consumer. Until underage smoking is controlled, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) needs to continue to regulate the sales of cigarettes more carefully because 90 percent of all smokers get hooked before the age of 21. The FDA's main focus is to discourage young people from taking up cigarettes in the first place (Shaw, Barry 460). .
After analyzing this particular article, I found moral issues that need to be addressed and resolved. My moral values are from a solid foundation involving religion and social customs. It is against the Catholic religion to subject a human body to any harm, especially harm that would result in death. It is proven by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States and is responsible for 16% of all deaths nationwide (Shaw, Barry 460).