Advertising trade groups are girding in opposition to Congress' bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) power to regulate tobacco products and restrict tobacco advertising, AdAge reported July 30.

The bill would ban color advertising of cigarettes, increase the size of health warnings, and prohibit ads where more than 15 percent of the audience is under age 18, among other stipulations. Advertising groups say the issue isn't tobacco but restraint of commercial speech that could later be applied to other consumer products.

"It's a de facto ban on advertising of a legal product, and it gives all of us pause," said Dick O'Brien, executive vice president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. "What we must defend is the right of being able to market legal products to the public. If this passes, there will almost certainly be a First Amendment [legal] challenge."

Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers, added, "There has never been a situation where 15 percent of the audience determines whether a product could be advertised. If it does move the ball, it is going in a direction that we don't like. We are concerned about the precedent."

Along with the American Advertising Federation, the groups led by O'Brien and Jaffe signed onto a letter to Congressional leaders calling the legislation "content-based censorship" that places the government "in the role of copywriter" and illegally seizes ad space and compels speech.