Tobacco Documents Online

SMOKE AND MIRRORS: DOES THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY WANT KIDS To "JUST SAY No?" The tobacco industry sends out glossy, user-friendly, "anti-smoking" youth packages to parents, teachers, governors, and television and radio stations across the country. Many well= intentioned adults will use these programs in an attempt to do something about youth smoking. Stop. Put down those kits. They are hazardous to your children's health-and here's why. Over the past few years, the tobacco industry has been stepping up its public relations campaigns focused on children and smoking. In an attempt to gain legitimacy, the Tobacco Institute (the powerful lobbying arm of the industry), Philip Morris, and RJ. Reynolds (the number 1 and 2 tobacco companies in the United States) have all promoted campaigns that they claim are aimed at discouraging smoking among youth These campaigns serve two major purposes. One is to improve the tobacco industry's image, which has been further tarnished in recent years by the continued confirmation of the deadly nature of their product. Second, researchers have found that because the campaigns glamorize smoking as an adult behavior that is off-limits to youth, they actually serve to reinforce all of the industry's marketing tactics aimed at increasing the youth market. "We conclude that the Tobacco Institute's 'Tobacco: Helping Youth Say No' program will increase the likelihood of tobacco use among children who are exposed to it," say Drs. Joseph DiFranza and Tim McAfee in a report published in the Journal of Family Practice. Thus, ironically, these campaigns actually help to protect the industry's youth market, a market that provides substantial profits in the short-term and a long-term future for the industry. These so-called "anti-smoking" youth campaigns, such as the Tobacco Institute's "Tobacco: Helping Youth Say No" and RJ. Reynolds' "Right Decisions. Right Now," ostensibly are intended to keep children from smoking. However, these campaigns have not only failed to prevent children from starting to smoke but ultimately lead to an increased smoking rate among youth. These programs claim to focus on helping kids get in touch with their feelings and values to decide whether to smoke. However, the industry wants children to make this "decision" based on insufficient information. For example, these programs never mention any dangers associated with tobacco use, although they do allude to the "health controversy" surrounding cigarette smoking. The emphasis on decisionmaking and choice in these programs also obfuscates the fact that cigarette smoking is addictive. Because the tobacco industry does not acknowledge that nicotine is addictive, it teaches that smoking is an "adult custom" based on an "adult decision," as if smoking were no longer dangerous once a person turns 18. The fact is that the tobacco industry loses close to 5,000 customers every day in the United .. States alone-=inciuding 3,500 who manage to quit and about 1,200 who die. The most promising "repiacement smokers" are young people. Ninety percent of all smokers begin smoking before they're 21, and 60% before they're 14. Although children may represent a small- market share for the tobacco ~ industry, they are nonetheless significant.. A 1990 study showed that the tobacco industry earns $221 ~ million in illegal profits each year from its sales to children. In this sense, children are perhaps the ~ . cigarette:industry's:.most--import-ant customers: ~