Joint ASH / Cancer Research Campaign press release
Jump to full article: ASH London (uk), 2000-10-10
Intro: But an investigation by ASH and The Cancer Research
Campaign has revealed that this is no more than a sinister and cynical public relations strategy. The purpose is to fend off meaningful restrictions on tobacco
advertising and gain PR advantage, while proposing only measures that are unlikely to reduce youth smoking and likely make it more attractive by positioning
cigarettes as an adult product and smoking as rebellious.
The report "Danger! PR in the Playground: tobacco industry initiatives on youth smoking" [1] releases internal tobacco industry documents, focus group
testing and academic research with three main findings:
1. The purpose of tobacco industry youth smoking initiatives is to prevent legal marketing restrictions to produce good PR for the tobacco industry – it has nothing to do with reducing youth smoking
2. The tobacco industry favours only measures that are known not to work well and may even be counter-productive – such as age related restrictions, retailer schemes, exhortation from parents and teachers, and finger wagging (with a wink) messages that smoking is only for grown-ups.
3. It resists or undermines those measures that are known to work - taxation, proper advertising bans, high prices, restrictions on smoking in public places, adult smoking cessation etc. Despite calls for co-operation over youth smoking and more research, the companies ignore, deny or attack the clear peer-reviewed evidence that does exist.
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