Pharmacy Partnership: Photos Sharpen Focus on Tobacco Industry Tactics
Pharmacy Partnership: Photos Sharpen Focus on Tobacco Industry Tactics
June 2, 1998There is a place where new dolls smile amidst cartons of Salem Lights, toy cars shine invitingly alongside Marlboro signs, and the Easter bunny sits happily atop a case of pipe tobacco.
Children in this drugstore can't reach high enough for the Hot Wheels toy firetrucks, but can easily grasp Marlboro cigarettes.
This exhibit is not in the local art museum, rather in the very place most consumers rely on to provide their healthcare needs -- chain drugstores. As part of a photojournalism project sponsored by the Pharmacy Partnership, young people throughout California captured these images of tobacco promotions in their communities' chain drugstores.
While World No Tobacco Day (May 31, 1998) promoted the theme of "Growing Up Without Tobacco" on a global level, these photographs illustrate the difficulty of that challenge for the children of California.
Not every young person can resist the tobacco industry's marketing tactics. Among underage smokers, 85% smoke the most heavily advertised brands, compared with 35% of adult smokers. Refusing tobacco's lure, one youth photographer noticed how "Benson and Hedges is giving a free CD case with the purchase of two packs -- an incentive to get lung disease."
Those videos up there on the left are "Peter Pan" and "The Little Mermaid"
Every year, three-and-a-half million people die from tobacco related disease throughout the world. Despite this, tobacco companies market their addictive products to the most vulnerable population -- children. 90% of new smokers are eighteen or younger. The average smoker starts at thirteen and is addicted to nicotine before their fifteenth birthday.
"The cigar case is dimly lit, catching the mystery of the tobacco it contains," said one youth in an Oakland, Calif. drugstore, summarizing the glamorous image tobacco companies project.
In addition to Virginia Slims lane-closed signs and posters for all brands, the photographs captured tobacco products prominently displayed next to items that appeal to children -- Disney videos, electronic toys, cracker jacks, stuffed animals, and gum balls. In one shot, a high school student kneels by cigars on the bottom shelf, to demonstrate the accessibility of tobacco to all children.
"By promoting and selling its products in drugstores, the tobacco industry dilutes the truth about the dangers of tobacco use and contradicts the health oriented message of these stores," commented Joy Noel, director of the Pharmacy Partnership.
The Pharmacy Partnership, a coalition of physicians, pharmacists, public health agencies, and community leaders, is a project of California Medical Association Foundation, made possible by the Tobacco Tax Health Protection Act of 1988-Prop.99, under grant No. 94-20949 from the California Department of Health Services/Tobacco Control Section.
CONTACT: Pharmacy Partnership
California Medical Association Foundation
Joy Noel, 415/882-3327
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