Tobacco Documents Online

H OAKLAND, CA. TRIBUNE D. 200,000 - S. 200,000 SAN FR/WCISCO METROPOLITAN AYF11 fO r By Jan $pvornla_ri I TM Ttipwm A campaign that helped''cut-the smoking rate for teenagers in Swe-. 'den almost in half will be launched.,,' soon across the-E3aited-Statts,-start- ing in the Bay Area. IC'6 called "A• Non-Smokirig Geei- . eration," and it' will use •socime of the - same tactics thptobsccq qocnpanies ; use - celebrities, billDoards, news- . paper and. magazine •`ads; pesters . - and youth-oriented sports and rock pvents. But Instead of the iiadustry's ini-" plied message that smoking is.a sign', of maturity, A Non,SmokingGener- Ation will say that ' it's cool• to be• - tobacco-free, that cigarettes have no place in a young, healthy life- style, that smoking is _'nerd-y," :".: ; "We can beat the tobacco indus- try at its own game,,, asserted actor ~~ _ ~ Larry Hagman, star of the CBS television hit "Dallas," who Is ac- tively supporting the program. "We're starting a campaign that will eventually target;15 million a,1j year in a media and educational!,• blitz that makes non-smoking the.._ thing to do for young people." In Sweden,:•where the prqgram ~4' , was started in 1979;'-by a former~ C arlHorn' manm! teacher named : ~ • _.,. . _ . - facturers were licensed to produce• .. ' . . • By ~0"'~ ~~ ~Dia~ "A Non Smoking Generation" T• -•Car1- Horn, left, and Dnle I,3etzk4,dtscuss S.vedish~ anti-smoking posters. shirts, jeans and other items. They : were sold at desigser prices to aa limited number of retailers. Rock The grand finale was one pf• the blamed this on stepped-up cigarette groups wore them on stage. Retail- biggest rock.concett.4 ever held in advertising aimed at the very ers couldn't keep them in stoGk, said Sweden. - young,' girls as well as boys. He Horn. 'I In the four years{of the Swedish - estimated that one in five American ~ Swedish non-smoking advocates campaign, smoking among teenage : 12-yearrolds smokes. , worked in the schools, too, and the boys dropped from •g6 percent to.20 ' That's why A Non Smoking Gen- organization ran poster and sticker percent. Swedish girls,,like Ameri- eration directs its message at 9- to contests in large newspapers and ' can girls, smoke even more than '`• ` 14-year'-olds. the biggest weekly magazine in the ' boys. Their,smoking rate dropped . "If young people get througb this country. .from 44 percent•to 26 percent. ',age g•roup, without starting to As the campaign progressed;i;`.. Hornt 38,.who •is also directing sinoke, they are~not likely to be- they signed up non-smoking class-,;.,the U.S. campaign, said the situa- come smokers, said Dale A. rooms and eventually, entire non- : tion here •is 'worse than in Sweden. Liezke, 32, the Bay Area regional I smoking schools. This meant th,a Fewer adults are smoking, he said, ;-sfaff-ivas also-ssnoke=fr~Ee. --- but more-chlit3rerrare'.startinQ; He. 1fi1VG, Pagt C-2 .c1LJlJ~i ~ ~ ,! -i

, S IIIo~~I12g . , ConUt~ued from GI ' director, from his Non Smokiqg Generation Of- fice ih San Francisco. The Bay Area pilot program will• be launched through the Better. Health . Pro- grams grams project of the Regional Cancer Foun- dation in San Francisco and Marin County. The project is now making a feasibility study of the stores where young teens shop, what they read and the radio sta- tions they listen to, said / Larry Hagman Lietzke. When the cam- •Supports pro4ect he $aid paign begins , , there' are bound to be Hagman is ' a fbrmer spin-offs to youngsters smoker, and he knows all o he BaV.ArSA7.1 how sed}ictive tobacco can bec l ~ : If 04_ local program "When I was a kid, works.:;he said,' it will ' all the role models be aP •rnodel for the.na- smoked," he said. tion~ide campaign to "Humphrey Bogart. be launched this fall. Duke Wayne. Clark Ga- Here' in the United ble. They smoked. So State$, said Horn; •`'we we smoked. are taking our time "But •the time is per- signing up celebrities fect now to reverse the because we want then•i trend. We'll use all the to realize it's a big re- proven marketing sponsibility being a role weapons available, in- modej. ' We want - to be .. cluding role models who sure none of our people, don't smoke, to con- will .be caught back- vince kids that smoking stagc~with a cigarEtte.'.:" iss uncool." 'Said Horn: "I know the joy of a cigarette. I smoked for 10 years, and I still think about them, which shows how addictive. they are: " He quit smoking eight years ago, he. said, his crusader's face soften- Ing, because of his son: "My son didn't 'want to give me • a hug," he explained, • his voice choking slightly, "be- cause he said I stank - from cigarettes." ' Then, when the boy was older. Horn caught him sneaking a ciga- rette. He decided the time had come to - acti- vate a plan he had been considering for years. He quit his job as a teLacher of disturbed c'hildren and started "A .. Nbn Smoking Genera= tion." • The Swedish cam- paign was funded by the corporate and public sectors, with a large in- surance firm the pri- mary sponsor. In the United States, General Mills and Exxon h each have con-' tributed $10,000 to the campaign. More' sup- port is being sought from other corporations wishing to associate their names with healthty young'Amerl- cans. • Bay Area spomors in- clude the Gerbode and Goldman Foundations, the 'First Bank System Foundation and the Lu- theran Brotherhood'- Horn said A -Non- Smoking Generation cannot hope to ap- proach the estimated . $2.4 billion spent an- nually • by the tobacco industry "to buy media and to buy souls." . . ,.. j. But he said the pro- gram is• extremely cost- effective on 'a large scale, because of its ~ mass tiiai•~eting te&;~ niques aad'. Cooperation' from -, pdbiic-minded companies and the vast U.S. network of health agencies. And he pointed out that the non-smoking program can advertise on' radio and television, which is illegal for ciga- rette companies. Why bring the 'cam- paign to this country? "To the tobacco in- dustry, Sweden is r important," said Hor "lt's too small. Swed was just a laboratory which to develop t. ,program. But the Mas boro Man is internatic al. That gives him t. power over young pe ple." Nevertheless, he er phasized there will no preaching. "That just turns ki off," he said. • "We want to gi• these kids a choice. N want to balance the i formation they recei from the tobacco lndL try, so they can ml the smoking decisic for themselves." ' TIMN 200931 p_ ,. , -, J. -t.