General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)I do not think they should be used by 4th graders.
As to whether they should be marketed to 4th graders...
1) There is no longer any such thing as marketing to 4th graders. Folks I know in their 20s and 30s thinks nothing of having a Hello Kitty purse, for instance. People are quite culturally infantile by earlier standards. It was never obvious to me that Joe Camel only appealed to children. And my 1st Amendment sensibilities have always been quite troubled by marketing limitations like "no cartoons"
I am far more concerned, as a social ill, about alcohol being "marketed to minors" by advertising on infantile things like NASCAR, but I am not demanding such a ban because I don't see the world as my playground.
But in the case of cigarettes it was an exceptional situation. Society declared widespread WAR on cigarettes.
And CRACKPOTS will never let a war end. Because they are CRACKPOTS.
So that mode of all-out war must be applied to something new, even though that something new is not bad enough to have warranted the fucking war.
Isn't this just as bad?
NO. It isn't.
Because it is notoriously hard to end wars once one is on a war-footing.