A major aspect the tobacco industry uses to justify marketing and promotion of a deadly addictive drug is that consumers make a responsible adult choice. In litigation, when victims have sued, almost invariably the argument industry takes is that you can’t be sure tobacco killed you and even if it did you knew better and chose to smoke. I mean we’ve had this warning on the pack since 1965. What were you thinking?
Phillip Morris funds ostensible tobacco prevention programs to keep kids from starting to smoke with the message that smoking is a choice only an adult should make. Can you think of a better way to get kids to smoke? It’s an adult choice. So what if most smokers make that choice a few years early? The tremendous capacity for nicotine to addict is fairly much a neglected aspect of the product. It’s all about choosing.
And along comes the latest Stamp Out Smoking essay contest. The theme this year is My Reason to Write. Students are encouraged to write a letter thanking someone for their smoke free example or encouraging someone to quit. Notice anything? It’s all about choosing. In fact, the heading of the page says “We can all say NO to tobacco.”
Undoubtedly we’ll see the same tired pleadings to addicted family members and blustering pledges to never start so they can make the team. In fact one of the suggestions is to organize a pledge drive. (I would welcome any legitimate research able to show that no smoking pledges are worth any more than the paper they are printed on.) In the first case the focus is on a role model in their lives. They may be an addict but they are still role models so something must be OK about nicotine. In the second instance, the industry line about choice being the significant aspect of smoking is parroted. Success with youth focused tobacco control programs are often frustratingly short term. With efforts like this it is no wonder.
I am fond of saying that tobacco has not been a benign weed by the side of the road for 400 years. But this is what is depicted when young people are told that the individual's choice to be tobacco free will make the difference. In the tips for parents and teachers on how to talk to kids about tobacco nowhere is the tobacco industry mentioned. Nowhere does it say that tobacco marketing, promotion, and public use are the result of multi-national corporations’ demand for profit. Instead these talking points would have us believe that being tobacco free was like choosing one cereal over the other for breakfast. Characterizing the issue like this makes it seem that smoking is a normal part of their day, they shouldn’t do it, but it's normal. When the very opposite should be our message.
In 1996 Dr. Stanton Glantz wrote in the American Journal of Public Health,
“Finally, the public health community should realize that the best way to keep kids from smoking is to reduce tobacco consumption among every one. The message should not be “we don’t want kids to smoke”; it should be “we want a smoke-free society.” As the tobacco industry knows well kids want to be like adults, and reducing smoking sends a strong message to kids about social norms.”
That was 16 years ago. Dr. Glantz spoke at the CTFA conference just last week. Was anybody responsible for this campaign there? Have they ever been? It is bad enough to have Burson Marsteller’s only U.S. based affiliate paid to run campaigns like this. The revolving door of personnel without actual tobacco control experience in the TPCP program makes ineffective messaging like this even more unfortunate.
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