Tobacco and the Media
The following is a list of facts and statistics about smoking and how the media helps influence teens to smoke.
- Advertising has the power to turn a meaningless symbol into a cultural icon.
- Teens are exposed to an estimated 3,000 advertisements a day-10 million by the time they are 18.
- Advertisements are constructed very carefully-there are no accidents.
- Advertisers stretch the truth to make their product(s) look appealing.
- Advertising gets to us. It is so clever that we don't always realize that we're being influenced-unless we learn to take a closer look.
- Tobacco companies spend a lot of money on advertising because it helps them replace the 1000-3000 smokers who die or quit each day.
- One form of media activism involves creating counter ads that challenge the myths of tobacco advertising.
- Tobacco ads show a fantasy, not a reality, because they must appeal to our emotions not our logic.
- The joe camal campaign was very successful. During the first three years, camal's share of the under-18 cigarrette market jumped from 0.5% to 32.8%.
- Just as media can be used to influence people to use tobacco, it can also be used to counter the harmful messages.
- There are concerned teens using media to fight the messages and monipulations of the tobacco industry on the international, national, state, and local levels.
- If media can be a powerful tool for big tobacco, media can also become a powerful tool for teens who want to fight back.
- There are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarrette smoke. Over 200 of these chemicals are poisonous, and at least 40 have been found to cause cancer. Some of the ingredients include ammonia (found in toilet bowl cleaner), arsenic (common ingredient in rat poison), poloium 210 (nuclear waste), carbon monoxide (car exhaust), and acetone (used in nail polish remover).
- For every eight smokers that die of a tobacco related illness, they take one non-smoker with them.
For help to quit smoking call this toll free number,
1-877-270-STOP or visit Quitline.com
Last dated 10-21-03