In an unexpected about-face, the tobacco industry last week moved toward a nearly unconditional surrender in the heated battle over cigarette advertising. Speaking for the nine U.S. cigarette manufacturers, Philip Morris Chairman Joseph Cullman III told the Senate Consumer Subcommittee that the industry was prepared to end all advertising on TV and radio on Dec. 31, if the broadcasters would go along, and in any case by September 1970, when current contracts expire.
The proposal meant victory for critics of the cigarette, notably the Federal Communications Commission, which earlier this year threatened to order all cigarette commercials off the air...