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Tobacco
kills more than 400,000 Americans each year—that’s 1,095
Americans everyday or 45 every hour. That’s more deaths than
those caused by AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides,
drugs, and fires—combined!
Despite the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which required 11 tobacco
companies to pay $246 billion to 48 states over 25 years, and included
numerous marketing and advertising provisions, Big Tobacco is still
targeting youth. Tobacco use is normalized and glamorized through
sport sponsorship, popular entertainment, including television and
movies, and magazines.
The ubiquity of tobacco marking and promotion will continue until the
federal government gets serious about prohibiting Big Tobacco from
targeting youth with their harmful messages. As a result, teens
must take action against Big Tobacco. Teens can use the same types
of media that the tobacco industry uses to create their own creative
anti-tobacco messages.
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“Today’s
teenager is tomorrow’s potential regular customer, and
the overwhelming majority of smokers first begin to smoke
while still in their teens…The smoking patterns of teenagers
are particularly important to Philip Morris.”
-Philip Morris, 1981 Internal Memo.
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