Please join us in saying
“No Thanks Big Tobacco!”
Tobacco companies are now limited in the ways that they can advertise. Yet major tobacco companies still spend over $13 billion each year (that’s more than $41 million each day) promoting their deadly product. By donating to community organizations and events, tobacco companies try to promote a positive image for themselves in the public. One result of this is that smoking is presented as socially acceptable, particularly to children.
A growing number of organizations and events across New York State are refusing tobacco company contributions and sponsorship.
Click here to view the video "Say No Thanks"
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Tobacco Use
Average age at which smokers try their first cigarette: 14 ½
88% of adults who have ever smoked tried their first cigarette by the age of 18
Number of new kids who try their first cigarette each day: 4,000
Number of adults who die from smoking each day:1,170
Number of people ill with smoking-caused disease on any given day:8.6 million
Big Tobacco Targets Youth
Major cigarette companies spend approximately $13 billion per year to promote their products (more than $41 million every day)
Cigarette company spending to market their deadly products increased by almost 125% from 1998 to 2003 (the most recent year for which complete data is available)
Internal tobacco industry documents (revealed in the tobacco lawsuits) show that the tobacco companies have:
- perceived kids as young as 13 years of age as a key market,
- studied the smoking habits of kids, and developed products and marketing campaigns aimed at them.
Impact of Tobacco Ads on Kids
“There is a causal relationship between tobacco marketing and smoking initiation [among youth].” - National Cancer Institute, 2001
Exposure to tobacco marketing (which includes advertising, promotions and cigarette samples) and exposure to pro-tobacco depictions in films, television, and videos more than doubles the odds that children under 18 will become tobacco users.
Pro-tobacco marketing and media depictions lead children who already smoke to smoke more heavily, increasing the odds of progression to heavier use by 42 percent.
Kids are more than twice as likely as adults to recall tobacco advertising.
Teens are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette advertising than they are by peer pressure.
A study in the Journal of Marketing found that teenagers are three times as sensitive as adults to cigarette advertising.
