Protect Our Kids. Lose the Ads.

Big Tobacco spent more than $11.5 billion in the U.S. in 2005 on advertising, discounts, and promotional efforts at retail sales outlets or "points of purchase" like convenience stores, which are visited weekly by 75% of adolescents. Research has shown retail advertising is more powerful than peer pressure.  Retail advertising has double the effect on children than it has on adults. The advertisements most likely to be seen, to be liked, and to be viewed as making smoking more appealing are for the brands most commonly smoked by adolescents.

I support the elimination of tobacco company produced advertisements and promotions in retail outlets as a way to decrease the attractiveness of smoking to our young people and protect them from the harmful and often fatal effects of tobacco use.