FR friend Shane Goldmacher has a starting blog post over at the Los Angeles Times Politi-cal website where he reveals that the California Department of Public Health (which collects money from a tax on cigarette passed by voters back in 1988 to then use for a number of purposes including anti-smoking education) made a decision to run a taxpayer funded anti-smoking ad — during the Superbowl!
The decision to place and fund this ad was apparently made by Colleen Stevens at the state health department. From the Goldmacher piece…
For her part, Colleen Stevens, chief of the Tobacco Control Media Campaign at the California Department of Public Health, said she was thrilled by the Super Bowl exposure. The year’s football game drew a record 111 million viewers nationally, according the Nielsen’s estimates. The state’s ad aired at least in Los Angeles and Sacramento.
“It’s one of the most viewed shows all year. People are watching it, paying attention and they’re doing something that almost never happens: They’re paying attention to the commercials,” Stevens said.
Good Lord. Apparently Ms. Stevens is living in a bubble, as are her bosses, and not thinking about the perceptual problems with spending precious state tax dollars this way. A a state government that has enough money to put ads up during the Superbowl really so cash-strapped that voters are to tax themselves to fund it?
I was going to show you the ad (which was imbedded from You Tube on the LA Times blog) only to find that apparently the spot was yanked (made private) — bizarre.
(Editor’s Note: This story originally said that the source of funds was Proposition 10, and that the funding came from the California First 5 Commission. This was in error.)