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FinalCall.com News
National News
Smoking and anti-smoking campaigns compete for young Blacks
By Makebra Anderson
Updated Sep 9, 2004 - 12:23:00 PM
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Thousands of pedestrians maneuver along congested downtown streets. Some are attempting to read the newspaper as others are sipping their morning coffee, trying to let the caffeine ease into their blood. Nearby, other pedestrians are rushing through crosswalks, barely looking at towering skyscrapers that cast long, dark shadows. Suddenly, everyone drops dead. No, it’s not another terrorist attack on the United States. The scene—taking place in a TV commercial—is designed to show that 440,000 Americans die of smoking-related illnesses every year.
There’s a history between tobacco and African-Americans. We were forced to pick, clean and carry it, and the tobacco industry has specifically targeted us for years.
For decades, skillful Madison Avenue advertising executives were able to manipulate young people into smoking by turning cigarette smoking into a status symbol, depicting smoking as alluring and debonair behavior. But now, as was the case with the graphic ad showing everyone dropping dead, tobacco marketers must now compete with bold anti-smoking campaigns that show the negative side of tobacco use.
And, according to many of the young people being targeted, the anti-smoking ads are beginning to have an effect.
“Several people in my family have smoked for years, but it never bothered me, because it was normal,” Maryland resident Leanne Williams, 20, says. “It wasn’t until I saw the ‘Truth commercials’ that I realized how harmful smoking is to your body.”
And that’s only part of the problem.
“Although smoking involves an initial decision to start, it quickly becomes not a matter of free choice, but one of addiction,” writes Graham Kelder, managing attorney of the Tobacco Control Resource Center, in the article “What Every Progressive Christian Should Know About the Tobacco Industry.”
“Most nicotine addiction begins, not during childhood, but during adolescence. Eighty-two percent of adult smokers began smoking as teenagers.”
Ironically, the tobacco industry is funding many of the tough anti-smoking TV commercials designed to persuade young people not to take up the habit.
Attorney generals in 46 states, five U.S. territories and the District of Columbia had filed suits against the tobacco industry seeking compensation for the millions of dollars it had lost on tobacco-related illnesses. In 1998, a Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) was reached. Among other things, it prohibits participating cigarette manufactures from targeting youth through promotions, such as the Joe Camel campaign, and advertising in teen magazines.
Established in 1999 under the MSA, the Washington-based American Legacy Foundation developed national programs, such as “The Truth” campaign that delivers disturbing facts about tobacco and industry’s marketing practices.
Internal tobacco company documents show that manufacturers have been targeting “young adult blacks” for more than three decades.
A Philip Morris document, written in July 1974, states, “The first observation is that Marlboro would probably have a very difficult time getting anywhere in the young black market. The odds against it there are heavy. Young blacks have found their thing, and it’s menthol in general and Kool in particular.”
R.J. Reynolds, in a May 9, 1984 document, notes: “Since younger adult Blacks overwhelmingly prefer menthol cigarettes, continued emphasis on Salem within the Black market is recommended. Salem is already positioned against younger adults. With emphasis on the younger adult Black market, Salem may be able to provide an alternative to Newport and capitalize on Kool’s decline.”
Not surprisingly, most Blacks smoke the three most heavily advertised brands: Newport, Kool and Marlboro. Almost 80 percent of Black teens smoke Newport, about double the Black adult rate for that brand. That troubles anti-smoking activists because menthol cigarettes have higher concentrations of carbon monoxide and have higher absorption of nicotine. Some research suggests that mentholated cigarettes may pose a greater risk of both lung and bronchial cancer.
If any progress is to be made in lowering the smoking rates, it must begin with young people.
A recent study published in the Journal of Health Economics found that “states with the best funded and most sustained tobacco prevention programs during the 1990s—Arizona, California, Massachusetts and Oregon—reduced cigarette sales more than twice as much as the country as a whole, 43 percent compared to 20 percent.”
The Arizona Department of Health Services has an aggressive “Ashes to Ashes: Tobacco is a Lethal Legacy” campaign developed for Blacks. With the assistance of Southwest Dimension, Inc., a Black-owned Phoenix firm, the department has developed one commercial that states: “There’s a history between tobacco and African-Americans. We were forced to pick, clean and carry it, and the tobacco industry has specifically targeted us for years. Now, generation after generation, we are plagued with tobacco addiction and chronic disease. Take your power back. Cut the ties with tobacco and move on to a life of good health and hope.”
Eshman Norris lives in California, another state that has an impressive smoking prevention program.
“Smoking cigarettes is not the thing to do these days,” says the 25-year-old Los Angeles resident. “Everyone in my generation knows how unhealthy smoking is. We know that smoking causes cancer, tooth decay, bad breath and ages you—it’s not worth it.”
Amanda Rosette, 21, a physical therapy doctorate student at the University of Southern California, agrees.
“Because I had a health-related major while in college, I’m completely aware of the health risks of smoking,” she says. “Everything about cigarettes is disgusting. Why would you want to take so many years off your life simply by smoking cigarettes—we all have to take responsibility for our quality of life at some point.”
According to the CDC, 45,000 Blacks die each year from smoking-related illnesses. Moreover, 1.6 million Blacks under the age of 18 will become regular smokers and about a third of those (500,000) will die prematurely from a tobacco-related disease such as cancer, heart disease and pulmonary disorders.
A University of Michigan study found that smoking among Black teens has increased over the past decade. From 1992 to 2001, according to the university’s Institute for Social Research, smoking among Black 8th graders increased from 5.3 percent to 8.2 percent, from 6.6 percent to 11.1 percent among 10th graders and from 8.7 percent to 13.3 percent among high school seniors.
The Journal study concludes that the anti-smoking “truth” ads may be effective in lowering some of those figures.
“The ‘truth’ brand builds a positive, tobacco-free identity through hard-hitting advertisements that feature youths confronting the tobacco industry,” the report reads. “This rebellious rejection of tobacco and tobacco advertising channels youths’ need to assert their independence and individuality, while countering tobacco marketing efforts.”
Many adults began smoking when very little was known about the dangers of smoking. But today’s youth don’t have that excuse.
“There is no excuse for people my age to start smoking because we have so much information about the various effects smoking has on your body,” Ms. Rosette says. “We all have to go one day, but you don’t have to write your own death wish by smoking cigarettes.”
