WASHINGTON - s4story -- Thanksgiving of 1966 was especially important because what happened that day saved millions of lives and many billions of dollars.

It led to an overwhelming barrage of very effective anti-smoking messages on radio and television which saved millions of lives, and many billions of dollars in unnecessary medical care costs, by persuading smokers to quit, and eventually led to a total ban on cigarette commercials.

The story is told in a famous article:
READER'S DIGEST INVOLVED AMERICANS - The Man Behind the Ban on Cigarette Commercials (http://banzhaf.net/about/ManBehindTheBanReaders...)

These warnings about the dangers of smoking persuaded millions of smokers to quit, causing the first ever decline in U.S. per capita cigarette consumption:
JOHN BANZHAF AND THE GIANTS - An Obscure Lawyer Parlays the Government's Fairness Doctrine Into a Possible $50 Million For Education Against Smoking

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After just a few years of seeing their market shrink because of the Banzhaf anti-smoking messages, the major tobacco companies ran crying to Congress to ask it to ban cigarette commercials so that broadcasters would stop providing free time for these very effective anti-smoking messages.  Ads for cigarettes disappeared from the nation's airwaves in a puff of smoke beginning on January 2, 1971.

These messages did what the earlier Surgeon General's Report on Smoking could not do; caused the first drop in cigarette smoking in the U.S.

Ultimately, it also drove cigarette commercials off the air.

That young lawyer then went on to start the nonsmokers' rights movement by getting smoking limited and then banned on airplanes; a revolution which led to bans in many indoor places - including in some apartments and even private homes - as well as outdoors, both here and abroad, and proved to be a major factor in forcing millions more smokers to quit.
WALL STREET JOURNAL - Cigaret Foe Banzhaf Sees the Law as Tool to Attack Social Ills (http://banzhaf.net/about/WSJArticle.pdf)

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He added to the pressure by helping to obtain a ban on cigarette billboards and the use of cartoon characters such as Joe Camel to advertise cigarettes; something Congress itself could not have done because of the First Amendment.

Today only about 12% of U.S. adults smoke, and those who do often pay more for life, health, and even automobile insurance.

Indeed, Banzhaf helped to persuade Congress to including a 50% smoker surcharge under Obamacare.

Perhaps more importantly, smokers increasingly must do their smoking away from nonsmokers, including children.

In terms of people affected, deaths prevented, and money saved, this may well be the most consequential public health movement in modern history, and it was all triggered by a football game on a Thanksgiving Day some 59 years ago.

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