Art & Commerce: Special Interest

Advertisers want the same First Amendment protection accorded noncommercial speech. They argue that ads for clothes, cars and even liquor deserve a seat at the table where political, religious and artistic expression reside. Indeed, marketers claim they are no different from their brethren in print and broadcast media.
Purists like myself find it difficult to believe that a group of youthful revelers swigging beer on a boat–the controversial Beck’s spot that drew the wrath of the Federal Trade Commission–is what the Founding Fathers envisioned when they wrote the Bill of Rights.