Advertising for tobacco products is highly regulated. Some anti-smoking groups believe that the tobacco industry is circumventing long established regulations by going online:

“…Although the tobacco companies deny it, one leading anti-smoking academic accuses them of using websites like YouTube to reach a younger client base.

Another one is called ‘Nice day for a girl to have a smoke’.”

link: Pro-smoking ‘ads’ target youth market on YouTube

One of the main concerns is that the internet sites, such as YouTube, reaches such a young audience. The issues speaks to regulating online content. If the anti-smoking groups protest and appeal to Google, which owns YouTube, the people who produce this smoking content undoubtedly will raise the issue of censorship and the stifling of artistic expression.

Catherine Forsythe

[tags]advertising, YouTube, smoking, tobacco products, censorship, internet, artistic expression[/tags]