Tobacco Documents Online

Copyright 1993' American Broadeastang Cornpanies, Inc., All rights reserved., ABC NEWS SHOW: WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH PETERJENNINGS JUL;,Y' 1, 1991 LENGTH: 4061 words BODY: ANNO'UNCER: From ABC, this is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Sitting in tonight, Tom Jarriel. TOM JARRIEL: And in our next segment, a powerful message to black stnokers about kicking the habit. [Commerciall break] TOM JARRIEL: The government is launching a new effiort to reach the seven million black Americans who smoke. The message is stark and simple - you're dying,fbr nothing. This time the message is contained in some very powerful images which the Centers for Disease Control hopes will counteract the impact of cigarette advertising; Here's ABC's Beth Nissen. BETH' NISS'EN: Those in mostly poor, mostly black communities say it is hard to miss the signs. 1ST AERICAN=AMERICAN: They have a lot of young African-Americans with cigarettes in their hands and it's just making it'look l'ike it°s okay to smoke. 2ND AFRICAN~AMERICAN: And every sign around here, it's all nothing but smoking cigarettes. BETH NISSEN: What's the message being givenito black Americans?' 2ND AFRICAN-AMERICAN: It's okay for you to die. BETH NISSEN: In fact, African-Americans do smoke more cigarettes and suffer higher rates of lung caneer thani any other population group in the country, and they see four times as many cigarette ads in their communities as whites do. They're ! about to see a very different kind of inessage fcom the US' government. ANNOUNCER: [PSA] I These people died because of their beliefs. These people also died because of their beliefs - beliefs like they couldh't quit smoking, But were those beliefs worth, dying for? BETHi NISSEN: The ad campaign's designers bellieve cigarette addiction is one more struggle for blacks and that using the images of Martin Luther King,and' Malicolm, X can raise a familiar cry in black communities - "We shall overcome":

DR. R!OBERT ROBINSW CDC: In this case, the :thing that needs to be overcome is the addiction and the habit of smoiting a cigarette: BETH N15SEN:~The! public service campaign will be on television, radfo and inner-city billboards this sum2ner: But public health official's say it will be hard to competie! with1 $4 billion in tobacco advertising a year. Beth Nissen, ABC' News, New York. -