Now they want car ads banned!

Arwen Birch writes:

A ban on car advertising may seem far-fetched, but if you compare the automotive and the tobacco industries in Australia, the similarities may be closer than you think.

Smoking and car use have comparable health costs, yet while we have the strictest tobacco promotion laws in the world, we allow car companies to promote themselves unbridled.

Smoking accounts for around 15,000 deaths and an estimated cost to the Australian economy of $31.5 billion each year.

Car accidents alone cost the economy an only slightly smaller $29.7 billion, but this does not include the significant health costs of air pollution and inactivity resulting from car use.

The banning brigade never stop do they.

Yes there are costs to the economy of car accidents. But there is also a huge huge boost to the economy by having motor vehicles. It allows people to actually get to work, to buy groceries, to take their kids to school, to visit families and friends.

Anyone who ignores the benefits and only focuses on the costs should be ignored.

It’s like claiming we should ban the advertising of fruit as some people get injured picking fruit.