There were many good reasons behind the ban of cigarette advertising from American televisions, but has the Federal Trade Commission forgotten the dark history of inappropriate ad campaigns? To be clear, cigarette advertising ran rampant for decades. Ads that seem shocking and unacceptable from today’s perspective were commonplace. Cigarette companies frequently promoted the health benefits of their products and paid doctors take a supportive attitude towards tobacco, and even more dangerous were ad campaigns that featured celebrities or cartoon characters.

According to The New York Times the intent of many tobacco companies was to convert younger parts of the United States population to become smokers when they grew up. By today’s standards this practice is condemnable, but only recently was action taken against these companies. It was not until the 1970s that the government banned television and radio advertising of tobacco products and only in 1984 was a smoking education act passed according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

But while modern society scoffs at the negligence shown by the American Government, many do not realize that a similarly dangerous pattern is emerging today. Like the television in its time, social media platforms are a new advertising platform, the likes of which have not been seen before. Some platforms, particularly Snapchat, pose a dilemma for government regulation agencies. As Contently.com, a content strategist website explains, it is understandably hard to monitor something that lasts for just a few seconds then disappears.

Though it is difficult for the government to regulate social media platforms, it is imperative that proper effort is made towards this considering the younger audience that is currently exposed to the content on these platforms. According to statista, 23% of snapchat users are under 18 years old. That means nearly one in four users have legal restrictions on what they should be exposed to but the regulations are not keeping up.

First off, many Snapchat celebrities are not clear about when their content is sponsored and when it is not. Snapchat persona DJ Khaled, for example, is known to praise cocoa butter repeatedly but is not paid by the company to do so. More maliciously however, some content on Snapchat is occasionally sexually explicit or promotes alcohol. According to the Los Angeles Times, Snapchat gives editorial independence to its third party content creators on the “discover” page. This means that sponsored content creators can post questionable material freely alongside individual users like DJ Khaled who already have no restrictions. Yet Snapchat has not yet begun to place warning labels before inappropriate content. Furthermore, DJ Khaled posts content that features ciroc vodka which runs the risk of glamorizing the product to younger audiences, even if he does make a point to tell his viewers to drink responsibly.

If society becomes complacent and allows celebrities to advertise alcohol to those who are underage, then the effect of government regulations may regress back to a time when cartoon characters sold cigarettes. Students must encourage the government to keep up with evolving media platforms. Students should realize that this trend is not normal and that these advertisements are not for their eyes, even if that’s what the advertisers are intending.