Last week, the federal government passed a bill that lets the FDA essentially control everything about how cigarettes are advertised and marketed. New restrictions could save thousands of lives. But wait, this could hurt magazines! Stop everything!

Last year, tobacco companies spent $78.4 million on ads in the U.S., with $69.3 million of that in magazines, mostly male-oriented publications including Maxim, Playboy, Men's Journal and Field & Stream

And therefore?

The ad industry opposes the legislation, arguing that it violates free speech.

Tobacco companies would only be allowed to run text-only, black-and-white ads, which lack that smoky tobaccozazz that gets the kids excited. Sure, the advertising and tobacco industries would love for kids to be healthy and all, but can we please be rationally for a moment and consider the impact this could have on Field & Stream? Is a world without Maxim a world worth living in, for a 17 year-old smoker?

Mostly this is just your daily reminder that the ad industry is just as morally bankrupt as the tobacco industry. Now, time to gobble some delicious Snus.
[WSJ]