SLAM! Mail Campaign--Indigo Girls and Leslie Nuchow at Irving Plaza in New York City. The concert was organized by SLAM! Records

For Immediate Release

New York, May 5, 1998 -- A mail campaign was launched to protest the marketing of tobacco to underage consumers. The mailing graphically demonstrates the effectiveness of tobacco industry marketing by enclosing cigarette butts collected outside of schools.

The mailing was first distributed to the audience at an April 27 concert by the Indigo Girls and Leslie Nuchow at Irving Plaza in New York City. The concert was organized by SLAM! Records as part of their effort to call attention to the tobacco industry's use of music in attracting young people to tobacco.

Concert-goers completed the mailing package by enclosing evidence of youth smoking: discarded cigarettes collected around a junior high or high school. A signed statement from the sender documents where the cigarettes were gathered. The statement and the evidence are sealed in a clear envelope addressed to Newt Gingrich. The message reads:

"WARNING: Allowing the tobacco industry to attract young people to smoking can be dangerous to your political health.

"Tobacco companies are focusing their efforts to attract consumers at a young age.

This envelope contains cigarette butts collected outside (name of school) , disturbing evidence that they are reaching their targeted audience. I demand that tobacco companies stop marketing their deadly product to a new generation of underage consumers.

Sincerely, (name of sender)"

Newt Gingrich has been closely allied with the tobacco cartel's agenda and has become the key decision maker in Congress's consideration of national tobacco legislation.

"The average age tobacco addiction begins is 12. If the tobacco cartel doesn't get 12-year olds addicted, it will go out of business. Unfortunately, the tobacco cartel is very good at addicting children," says Joe Cherner, President of SmokeFree Educational Service.

We are now searching for additional sponsorship--someone to underwrite additional printings and distribution to another audience of participants. We will make the document file available to anyone wishing to sponsor it. It can easily be customized to be addressed to any appropriate person who might become a key player in this issue as it unfolds.

This mailing was produced and distributed by Class Action, an art collective formed in 1992 by a group of artists committed to initiating social change. Class Action has received local, national and international recognition for its work on such issues as domestic violence, reproductive rights, aids, teen pregnancy and the proposed elimination of the NEA and NEH.

Class Action/The Art Collective for Community Action
461 Franklin Street Cambridge Massachusetts 02139 T 617 654 0501
F 617 426 8384

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