MPR: Teens Target Tobacco

Teens Target Tobacco
by Tom Scheck
April 27, 2000

"Invitation"
Teens invite representatives of big tobacco companies to attend a conference on smoking, and then go looking for them when they don't show up.

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The first set of television, radio and billboard ads from Minnesota's $490 million Youth Tobacco Endowment were unveiled Thursday. The advertisements were designed by teenagers with the hopes of discouraging youth smoking. The ads target the tobacco industry, not smokers.

THE $7.5 MILLION campaign will air on tv and radio stations that target teenagers. The ads will be placed on TV shows like "Felicity" and "Dawson's Creek," and on top-40 radio stations. At a podium surrounded by 15 teenagers, State Health Commissioner Jan Malcom says it's imperative they run an effective ad campaign because youth smoking rates are on the rise in the state. "A lot of adults think we've licked this problem," says Malcom. "That's not the case. Adult smoking rates in our states have been stable at 24 percent for a number of years but smoking rates among teenagers have gone up. According to the Minnesota student survey, 42 percent of 12th graders in this state smoke."

Malcolm says the marketing campaigns of tobacco companies have worked, contributing to the increase in teenage smoking rates. Images of the Marlboro man and Joe Camel have been common themes on billboards and in magazines during the last two decades. So Malcolm and other anti-tobacco groups say they want to counter those images. And she says using teenage themes will make the commercials effective. The anti-tobacco ads feature rap music, others take shots at target tobacco executives.

"Thank You"
In a commercial heavy on sarcasm, teens thank big tobacco companies for the effects of smoking.

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The campaign is modeled after a similar effort in Florida. Florida officials say their ad campaign helped reduce smoking rates among junior-high schoolers by 54 percent, while it trimmed the rates among high schoolers by 24 percent.

Some of the youths involved in Minnesota's anti-smoking group, Target Market, hope for similar gains here. Grace Riley, from the Academy of Holy Angels in Ridgefield, says she's angry the tobacco industry has targeted her age group. "I see people starting smoking and they're just a number," she says. "They're money in the pocket, they never see the face, they never see the holes in the throats of emphysema victims."

Ted Johnson with Shandwick International, the company that worked to develop the ads with teenagers, says the students wanted the ads to lecture less, and be conversational. "This is not a traditional adult-led movement with a youth advisory board," according to Johnson. "This is really a youth movement with an adult advisory board, and the beauty of that is the kids themselves are driving this."

The students at the press conference admit it will be difficult to convince all teenagers to quit smoking. But they hope the ad campaign will send an anti smoking message to those considering smoking.

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	Text: Sm : Md : Lg