In a time of a high unemployment and dire budget forecasts, the State of Wisconsin has decided to waste money telling residents that a statewide smoking ban in workplaces begins soon. See, Wis. to Launch Statewide Smoking Ban Ad Blitz. There are a thousand ways to better use this money, from not spending it at all to emergency services for the truly needy.
The campaign involves radio, print, and Internet ads featuring Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. (Just about any spokesman, of any party, would be more persuasive than our governor, in the final months of his term, and none-too-popular.)
There’s no reason to spend money on a campaign that assumes residents will not know of the ban through their own reading and their won workplace notices. I’m opposed to the ban in any event — businesses should decide for themselves if they wish to ban smoking.
What’s typical though is the condescension of politicians to assume that residents and businesses will not know of the ban without a government ad campaign. Of course they will know of it; it’s a reflex for government to conclude that without state intervention and state public relations efforts, people would be in the dark about all this.
Wisconsin has better uses for the money this campaign will require.