A powerful lobby is fighting for free commercial speech, writes Hazel Friedman
Graham Langmead is an unashamed fag hater. But if there is one thing he hates more than fags it is any attempt to ban advertising them. And while he believes breast is best, he virulently opposes restrictions on advertising substitutes.
Just in case you were thinking otherwise, Langmead is not the leader of Homophobics United. He is the executive director of an organisation called the Freedom of Commercial Speech Trust – an umbrella body committed to promoting consumers’ right to choose.
Founded in March this year, the Trust initially set out to delay what it deemed the government’s authoritarian anti-tobacco legislation. But the ambit of its activities has since been considerably enlarged.
Spurred by the threatening prospect of legislation being planned to restrict a variety of legal products, members of the media and marketing sector have begun to lobby for the fundamental right to freedom of commercial expression, based on the principles inherent in a market-driven economy.
They cite the potential disaster for the economy and foreign investment if this principle is not protected, and they advocate the rights of consumers to make educated choices based on freely available information.
Following a congress held in late 1996 by the Print Media Association, an umbrella body consisting of various magazine and newspaper affiliates, the Freedom of Commercial Speech Committee was established in February this year. Funded by the the Marketing Industry Trust, the Freedom of Commercial Speech Trust is its progeny, and its brief has since been broadened to include the “defence of freedom of commercial speech”, instead of remaining product specific.
Already, the trust’s members include 22 consumer bodies. It has held meetings with the National Consumer Forum, provincial and national departments of trade and industry and received support from the International Advertising Association and the Public Relations Institute of South Africa.
It also has observer status for some media industry stakeholders, including the Freedom of Expression Institute, the South African National Editors’ Forum and the National Association of Broadcasters.
“We work from a couple of premises including that if it is legal to produce something, then it should be legal to promote it,” said Neil Jacobsohn, chair of the trust, and Times Media Limited’s deputy chief, shortly before the official launch of the trust in March this year.
Since then it is not merely Department of Health’s planned anti-smoking legislation, nor its efforts to ban tobacco sponsorship of sport in South Africa which have made the trust fume. The government has also slapped a ban on advertising breast-milk substitutes and there are plans in the pipeline to ban all marketing of these products. This policy has been guided by the World Health Organisation recommendations that breast feeding should be promoted, because of the dangers of using water from polluted streams.
Yet a mother who is HIV positive more than doubles the risk of passing on the virus through breast feeding.
“A ban on advertising breast feeding substitute products prevents the mother from making an informed choice in the best interests of her child’s health,” points out Langmead. “Mothers need to be empowered to make a responsible decision regarding safe infant feeding.” He adds: “Likewise, by banning responsible tobacco advertising and sponsorship of sport we are denying consumers the right to information. Prevent tobacco advertising and the 15% of the tobacco industry’s ad-spend devoted to warning labels on products. also stops.”
But Langmead is not a closet fag hag. A virulent anti-smoker, he actively supports age restrictions on the consumption of potentially harmful products. But even the government’s efforts in that area have left him choking with frustration.
Inspired by the British government’s announcement in July this year that the sale of tobacco will be banned to under- 18s, the health ministry has lowered the restriction age to 16.
And while the proposed South African health legislation says much about the sale of cancer sticks, it omits any reference to their consumption.
In other words, as is the case in Czechoslovakia where buying drugs is illegal but consuming them is not, South Africa’s proposed anti-smoking legislation will be regarded as a lot of twak even before it gets off (or under) the counter. Submissions on the proposed anti-smoking legislation are due on November 11.
“We believe that by consulting legislators and consumer lobbyists, we will be able to develop a self-regulatory body that will both educate South African consumers and enable them to make to make informed choices,” says Langmead. “We aim for prevention through education.”