Tobacco: Calling a Smoke a Smoke

With muscled men, gorgeous girls and green valleys, the U.S. tobacco industry has long pictured the cigarette as the companion of sex and virility, of glamour and wellbeing. From now on, the industry will have to call a smoke a smoke—and pretty much let it go at that.

Last week the nine major U.S. cigarette makers, imposing the most severe self-regulation in their history, announced a new advertising code. The code is a clear attempt to forestall, or at least to soften, the Federal Trade Commission's imminent controls over cigarette advertising and merchandising,...