From: Peter Seidman [pfs@flash.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 12:52 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Public Health is More Important than Advertising

Sirs:

I strongly urge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use its authority
over commercial advertising of products under its jurisdiction, and severly
restrict such advertising.

The FDA should work hard to maximize its authority to regulate commercial
speech because:

* Direct-to-consumer drug advertising exists primarily to promote the sale
of drugs, not to educate.

* Restrictions on the advertising of tobacco, alcohol, gambling and
pharmaceuticals are essential for protecting public health.  Of all the
problems facing our country, insufficient advertising of cigarettes,
liquor, and so on is not one of them.

* Children are especially vulnerable to advertising, because corporations
use sophisticated psychological techniques to trick them, and because
children lack the maturity to deal with these techniques.

* Due largely to the assault of marketing to children, there have been
marked increases in marketing-related diseases, such as childhood obesity
and type 2 diabetes.

* For the FDA, public health should be a higher priority than protecting
corporations or their right to advertise.

* Corporations are far too powerful already.  The FDA should seek the right
balance between individuals and corporations in the arena of public health,
and not tip it further towards corporations and their lobbyists in our
nation's capital.

Thank you for consideration of my comments.

Sincerely,

Peter Seidman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter Seidman
1238 Josephine Street
Berkeley, CA  94703-1112
510-528-4344 (phone and fax)
pfs@flash.net