A Smokeless Screen

The British government has always kept the TV commercial at arm's length, as if it were a particularly odorous fish. The state-owned British Broadcasting Corp. will have nothing to do with it at all. On Britain's single commercial TV network, the government allows no sponsored programs, confines commercials generally to short intervals between programs and carefully regulates their length and tone. Last week the Labor government took regulation a step farther. As part of the government's vigorous antismoking campaign it ordered a strict ban on all cigarette advertising on the telly, which cigarette companies had already voluntarily restricted to after 9 in the evening.

The ban, though expected for some time, caused an uproar. The London Daily Express called it "an outrageous interference with the rights we enjoy, nothing less than a sinister erosion of freedom in Britain." Many Britons simply regretted the demise of the slick cigarette commercials, many of which draw more rave notices than the regular programs. The sell is soft and jingles are out, but the British are attracted by the scenes of mountain streams, horse country and fast sports cars.

The government will have no difficulty in making the ban stick. It owns all the country's TV transmitting stations, rents facilities and program time to 14 privately owned producing companies, which make their money by selling advertising. The ban will cost them one of their best customers. Cigarette advertising now accounts for about $15 million of the commercial network's annual income of $224 million.

The TV ban is not expected to hurt cigarette sales, but only to force the companies to shift their ads for some 100 brands to newspapers and magazines. The Daily Mirror's columnist Cassandra reassured smokers: "You'll still have the precious right to smoke yourself to death with a wonderful selection of brands at your suicidal disposal." But the restriction may not end with TV, if Labor has its way. Said Health Minister Kenneth Robinson: "The question of cigarette advertising in other media is still under consideration."

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