Hurdles for anti-tobacco message are high, many

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, June 19, 2001

Almost no one is going to feel bad for the tobacco industry these days and rightly so. As public sentiment mounts against Big Tobacco, the fire is only fueled by a recent report from The Annenberg Public Policy Center that ads are still targeting our teens.

Both the report’s and local experts’ criticisms of tobacco ads and sales practices are fair. A girl wearing a head set selling cigarettes, packs of cigarettes displayed in easily accessible convenience store bins and cigarette packs displayed next to candy and toys are highly inappropriate and deserving of censure.

But the Annenberg report touches on a couple of interesting points that might go beyond just tobacco advertising, to advertising in general and deep-rooted cultural changes.

First, the report contends that "by creating favorable imagery, cigarette advertising lays the groundwork for smoking initiation in young people." This is a true statement, but the same can be said of advertisements, from soft drinks to clothing. Of course, one can argue that soft drinks and clothing aren’t addictive and deadly.

The essence of advertising is to create a favorable image for your product to attract consumers or create a negative image of a competing product to dissuade people from using it. It’s unrealistic to expect tobacco ads to convey a negative image of cigarettes. That’s what anti-tobacco advertising is for. And while small in number, the anti-tobacco ads on television today are strong.

The study also says that 14- to 22-year-olds don’t have a grasp of smoking’s addictive nature and don’t understand how dangerous it is compared to other "hazardous behaviors."

That, too, is understandable but again it may not be entirely the fault of the tobacco industry — not to let the industry off the hook. We live in a society where extreme sports and jam-packed living rules. More and more people, especially young people, are picking up extreme sports. We watch television shows dedicated to recruiting people to try dangerous things so viewers can see their reactions . People used to jump off bridges to commit suicide. Now they pay to jump from a bridge with a cord wrapped around their ankles. In a culture where extreme sports are viewed as attractive, isn’t it difficult to convince young people of the dangers of something as seemingly low-risk as smoking?

Our society’s perspective on what is dangerous changed before the anti-tobacco groups had time to catch up. That’s not their fault. But it’s not necessarily the fault of Big Tobacco, either. What it means is the anti-tobacco campaign is up against more evils than just Big Bad Tobacco. Those fighting the war deserve our complete support and participation. We aren’t suggesting the war waged against tobacco companies be softened. Quite the opposite — it’s time to expand the understanding of the various elements of society impacting our young people and encouraging them to start smoking. That will provide further clues on how to educate them about tobacco’s dangers.

The findings of the Annenberg report and some of the surrounding issues reveal much more than the bad behavior of the cigarette giants. They suggest that the problem is more complicated than we could have imagined.