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April 9, 2002
New York Times
Ads Quote a Mayor Who Inhaled and Liked It
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Ads Quote a Mayor Who Inhaled and Liked It
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws Foundation said yesterday that it was beginning a $500,000 advertising
campaign featuring Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg paired with a remark he made
praising marijuana to a magazine reporter last year before he announced he
was running for mayor.
The group, which is based in Washington, put out a news release saying that
its campaign, which would include bus shelter signs, transit signs and radio
advertisements, would be aimed at the city government, which it would like to
stop arresting and jailing people for smoking marijuana. The group also
placed a full-page advertisement today in The New York Times.
The ads will feature the mayor responding to the question of whether he had
ever tried marijuana by saying: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." The
quotation comes from an interview the mayor gave to New York magazine last
year.
Mr. Bloomberg, who learned of the planned advertisement when reporters told
him about it at his daily news conference yesterday at City Hall, grinned and
said, "Oh great, I'm thrilled." He added: "I'm not thrilled they're using my
name. I suppose that the First Amendment gets in the way of me stopping it. I
think we should enforce the laws as they are, and the Police Department will
do so vigorously."
Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had a less gentle approach to those
advertisers who used his name in what he considered to be an unflattering
manner. In 1997, New York magazine ran bus ads that referred to itself as
"possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for."
Through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Mr. Giuliani fought to
remove the advertisements through the courts and lost. The United States
Supreme Court refused to hear the agency's final appeal, letting stand a
federal appellate court decision that the authority violated New York
magazine's free-speech rights last year by forcing the magazine to kill the
ads.
Laws Foundation said yesterday that it was beginning a $500,000 advertising
campaign featuring Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg paired with a remark he made
praising marijuana to a magazine reporter last year before he announced he
was running for mayor.
The group, which is based in Washington, put out a news release saying that
its campaign, which would include bus shelter signs, transit signs and radio
advertisements, would be aimed at the city government, which it would like to
stop arresting and jailing people for smoking marijuana. The group also
placed a full-page advertisement today in The New York Times.
The ads will feature the mayor responding to the question of whether he had
ever tried marijuana by saying: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." The
quotation comes from an interview the mayor gave to New York magazine last
year.
Mr. Bloomberg, who learned of the planned advertisement when reporters told
him about it at his daily news conference yesterday at City Hall, grinned and
said, "Oh great, I'm thrilled." He added: "I'm not thrilled they're using my
name. I suppose that the First Amendment gets in the way of me stopping it. I
think we should enforce the laws as they are, and the Police Department will
do so vigorously."
Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had a less gentle approach to those
advertisers who used his name in what he considered to be an unflattering
manner. In 1997, New York magazine ran bus ads that referred to itself as
"possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for."
Through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Mr. Giuliani fought to
remove the advertisements through the courts and lost. The United States
Supreme Court refused to hear the agency's final appeal, letting stand a
federal appellate court decision that the authority violated New York
magazine's free-speech rights last year by forcing the magazine to kill the
ads.
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