ANTI-SMOKING EFFORT LAGS

Critics Say 3 New Ads Fall Short Of Promises

LOS ANGELES -- The Wilson administration had to defend an incomplete ad
campaign this week to anti-smoking activists who were disappointed that it
wasn't finished.

``This is the most significant health problem affecting Californians,''
said Alan Henderson, president of the American Cancer Society of
California. ``We have lost headway, and we are not happy about it.''

The administration wants this year's campaign to be better than last
year's, said Jim Stratton, deputy director of prevention services for the
state Department of Health Services.

Those ads included a television commercial with a woman smoking through a
hole in her throat, having lost her larynx to cancer.

``We are working as hard as we can within the confines of this
administration,'' Stratton said at a meeting Tuesday of the state's
anti-smoking oversight committee.

Last year's $22 million campaign was part of a three-year, $67.5 million
plan to draw attention to cigarette addiction and the dangers of secondhand
smoke.

Activists say last year's campaign prompted calls from health officials in
Florida, Michigan and Oregon about borrowing the ads.

Colleen Stevens, who oversees the campaign, showed the committee two new
billboard ads set to go up in a couple of weeks and a TV commercial that is
to begin airing today.

Committee members, mainly appointed by legislators and the governor,
applauded the three new ads but said they fell short of a promise to see
the entire campaign for this year.

Last year's campaign consisted of 16 radio, TV and billboard ads.

``The concern that I have is that the ad campaign has gotten caught in the
bureaucratic treadmill,'' said Stan Glantz, a committee member representing
health care employees and professor of medicine at the University of
California-San Francisco. ``It's been over a year since any new media has
come out, and it looks like it's going to be dragged out.''

The new TV commercial, aimed at garnering support for California's landmark
ban on bar and casino smoking, features a bartender saying he doesn't mind
listening to people's problems but does mind having to inhale secondhand
smoke.