- [1]
- CCTC Website: Industry Watch FAQs Accessed March 16, 2007. http://www.cctc.ca/cctc/EN/industrywatch/faqs
- [2]
- Johnston M., Daniel HG, Levy CJ. 8102 Young smokers - prevalence, trends, implications and related demographic trends. March 31, 1981. Philip Morris Companies, Inc. Access date: August 21, 2001. Bates No. 1000390803-1000390855. URL: http://www.pmdocs.com.
- [3]
- Pierce JP, Choi WS, Gilpin EA, et al. Tobacco industry promotion of cigarettes and adolescent smoking. JAMA 1998;279:511–15. Accessed September 13, 2007 http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/279/7/511?
ijkey=a6ab22012c66028d478ca958811b7824bb693665 - [4]
- http://www.whudafxup.com/?ref=truthsite
- [5]
- http://www.whudafxup.com/?ref=truthsite
- [6]
- World Health Organization Website: Accessed March 16, 2007, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2004/pr36/en/
- [7]
- Big Tobacco Sucks Website: Accessed March 16, 2007, http://www.bigtobaccosucks.org/home/center.html
- [8]
- See the testimony of Lynn Beasley VP for Marketing at RJR in the Minnesota tobacco litigation. April 20, 1998 and the testimony of James Morgan, former CEO of Philip Morris Tobacco Company in the Minnesota tobacco litigation. April 22, 1998, in Youth and Marketing Collection linked through URL: http://roswell.tobaccodocuments.org.
- [9]
- Cummings, K.M., Morley, C.P., Horan, J.K., Steger, C., & Leavell, N.R. (2002). Marketing to America's youth: evidence from corporate documents Tobacco Control 2002;11:i5-i17. Accessed September 13, 2007 http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/11/suppl_1/i5
- [10]
- Johnston M., Daniel HG, Levy CJ. 8102 Young smokers - prevalence, trends, implications and related demographic trends. March 31, 1981. Philip Morris Companies, Inc. Access date: August 21, 2001. Bates No. 1000390803-1000390855. URL: http://www.pmdocs.com.
The terms tobacco industry or as we like to call them, Big Tobacco refers to a group of companies who produce cigarettes, cigars, snuff, chewing and pipe tobacco. This industry is heavily dominated by giant international firms based around the world and concentrated in the southern United States (particularly Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia).
Like any profit-making business, tobacco companies must sell their product in order to make money. They use advertising to draw attention to tobacco and to convince consumers that they want and even "need," to buy tobacco products. Industry documents have proven that tobacco companies realize they need young people to start smoking so they can replace the smokers they have killed.
No ifs, ands or butts. We are against the tobacco industry. Here are our top ten reasons why:
10. Big Tobacco is greedy
In 2001, over 40 billion cigarettes (42,301 billion) were sold in Canada.[1] They are one of the biggest profit making industries in the country.
9. Big Tobacco needs YOUth
Honest!! In a real tobacco industry memorandum, one executive commented how a price increase in the cost of a pack of cigarettes would have an especially large impact on teenage smokers and Marlboro sales: "[w]e will no longer be able to rely on a rapidly increasing pool of teenagers from which to replace smokers through lost normal attrition.”[2]
8. Big Tobacco manipulates kids
Big Tobacco recruits youth by developing product brand images that show independence, freedom and peer acceptance. They portray smokers as attractive, autonomous, accepted and admired, and athletic.[3]
7. Big Tobacco is two-faced
All across Canada, tobacco companies have launched so-called “prevention” programs that they say are designed to discourage youth from smoking. Studies have shown that in some cases, these programs actually reinforce youth’s natural tendency to rebel and so encourage them to smoke.
6. Big Tobacco is stupid
The tobacco industry has stated that drinking one to two glasses of whole milk a day is riskier than second-hand smoke.[4] Say, whaaat?
5. Big Tobacco uses teen and child movies to promote cigarettes
It’s no secret. Tobacco companies work closely with Hollywood to promote smoking in movies. (For more on this check out the section “Lights, Camera, Addiction! Smoking and Movies”)
4. Big Tobacco is racist
Tobacco companies have labeled African Americans less educated; prefer malt liquor; have problems with their own self-esteem.[5]
3. Big Tobacco uses child labour
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) child labour is widespread in all major tobacco producing countries.[6]
2. Big Tobacco is bad for the environment.
Tobacco companies often grow tobacco using pesticides and herbicides on land that has been recently deforested.[7]
1. Big Tobacco is watching you
Although they have stated publicly that they don’t want minors to smoke,[8] internal industry documents have proven that they keep an extremely close eye on the youth market and have developed strategies to encourage youth to smoke.[9] For example, a Philip Morris research report stated that "It is important to know as much as possible about teenage smoking patterns and attitudes. Today's teenager is tomorrow's potential customer, and the overwhelming majority of smokers first begin to smoke while still in their teens."[10]
For more info about the tobacco industry, check out the Tobacco Industry Tactics tab in our Homework Help section.
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