Plumbing the depths

In this modern era of multiple deaths from lung cancer and heart disease attributable to cigarette smoking, the ethics surrounding advertising by some of the strongest pillars of the Indonesian economy are becoming more and more questionable.

Due to their enormous and uncomplicated financial contributions to both the television companies' revenue and the government's tax coffers, any detrimental long-term effects on the health of the nation continue to be quietly and conveniently ignored.

A line could and should easily be drawn, however, when these companies resort to nonsensical double entendres involving lewdness and obscenity. Drawing a parallel between a cappuccino and a cigarette may be somewhat bizarre, but linking cigarettes with G-spots really is "plumbing the depths" of indecency, and where that leads is anybody's guess.

Could somebody with a real breadth of vision not be assigned to vet ads of all kinds for particularly detrimental content?

JOHN TAYLOR, Kuta, Bali