Cite as: 521 U. S. 457 (1997)
Souter, J., dissenting
ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance . . . have the full protection of the guaranties [of the First Amendment]," Roth v. United States, 354 U. S. 476, 484 (1957). This premise was later echoed in Virginia Bd. of Pharmacy, where we asked whether commercial speech "is so removed from any exposition of ideas, and from truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of Government, that it lacks all protection." 425 U. S., at 762 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). The answer, of course, was no.
What stood against the claim of social unimportance for commercial speech was not only the consumer's interest in receiving information, id., at 763-764, but the commercial speaker's own economic interest in promoting his wares. "[W]e may assume that the advertiser's interest is a purely economic one. That hardly disqualifies him from protection under the First Amendment." Id., at 762. Indeed, so long as self-interest in providing a supply is as legitimate as the self-interest underlying an informed demand, the law could hardly treat the advertiser's economic stake as "utterly without redeeming social importance" and isolate the consumer's interest as the exclusive touchstone of commercial speech protection.
Nor is the advertiser 's legitimate interest one-dimensional. While the value of a truthful representation of the product offered is central, advertising's persuasive function is cognizable, too. Like most advertising meant to stimulate demand, the promotions for California fruit at issue here do more than merely provide objective information about a product's availability or price; they exploit all the symbolic and emotional techniques of any modern ad campaign with messages often far removed from simple proposals to sell fruit.1 "Speech has the capacity to convey
1 Thus, commercial advertising generally and these programs in particular involve messages that go well beyond the ideal type of pure commercial speech hypothesized in Virginia Bd. of Pharmacy, which would do " 'no
479
Page: Index Previous 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007