Jump to full article: Des Moines (IA) Register, 2001-08-17
Author: STACI HUPP / Register Staff Writer
Intro: Joe Camel and the Marlboro man will get a higher profile in Marshalltown, where city officials restricted tobacco advertising three years ago.
The City Council will drop a controversial ordinance that banned tobacco advertisements using color or logos outside convenience stores. They feared it wouldn't stand a legal challenge in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The court recently struck down a similar regulation in Massachusetts, saying it violated free-speech rights.
A group of middle-school students pushed the City Council to pass the ordinance in September 1998. The students said the idea was aimed at protecting children who pass tobacco advertisements while walking to school.
"They must have worked on it six months out of the school year," Councilman Tom Curley said. "Now, with one fell swoop of the Supreme Court, it's gone."
The ordinance was modeled after a 13-year-old Des Moines regulation that restricts tobacco and alcohol advertising within 400 feet of schools and churches.
Jump to full article » |