Right now kids can recognize the Joe Camel cartoon character almost as easily as they recognize Mickey Mouse.
Uh-huh. Right. Teenage smoking is up 10% since the Joe Camel campaign started.
I'm now working with INFACT, the same organization that successfully boycotted Nestle' and GE, to force the cigarette companies to stop directing their ad campaigns toward minors. We are now boycotting Philip Morris, which owns Kraft and many other companies nonsmokers and smokers alike do business with, to let the cigarette companies know it's their turn to be accountable to the public.
I don't care what adults do voluntarily. I drink. I've been known to have a cigarette once in a blue moon. I make these choices as an adult. I get angry when these things are pushed at children who haven't yet formed their own opinions. Many of the strongest supporters of our campaign are smokers and ex-smokers.
Yup. But the cigarette companies don't sell to minors- they sell to stores which sell to minors. So they can safely place advertisements that are clearly aimed at children without breaking the law.
No doubt it's a factor, but this doesn't explain why youth sales have gone up strongly since the Joe Camel campaign began. And the tobacco companies actually use this attitude in their cynical "Helping Youth Say No" campaign, which doesn't say a word about lung cancer or addiction-- it just says "Smoking is an Adult Choice." This sort of reverse psychology is insulting to a teenager's intelligence, yes-- but the sales figures indicate that it works.
The official position of the organization is that a ban on cartoon characters in cigarette advertising would be a good thing, but this is not the tactic we are primarily pursuing. We believe consumer pressure is the best way to change corporate behavior in a free society, but given the tobacco companies' penchant for suing people to shut them up, we wouldn't cry if the law were used against them.
We want to pressure the cigarette companies AS CONSUMERS, something we have every right to do. RJR Nabisco, Philip Morris and British American Tobacco ALL have subsidiaries that sell other products. INFACT has already begun a boycott against Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco. Instead of tampering with their free speech rights, we'll exercise our own and let them know they can expect their sales of everything from Kraft Cheese to homeowner's insurance to go down the tubes unless they straighten out their act, both in the West and in the Third World. (In South America, their tactics include American women in jeeps handing out cigarettes to teenagers.)
Check out these two documents also available from this service, which include full references for the claims made here and many other facts about the tobacco industry:
Those with access to neither ftp or World Wide Web can contact me by email (boutell@boutell.com) for any of these materials.
INFACT is now boycotting Philip Morris and RJR Nabsico. See the list of products made by Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco. They produce far more than cigarettes and you probably buy their products every week!
We are also currently bombarding all three companies with postcards and letters letting them know we won't stand for their behavior any longer. This is a real threat-- INFACT put a crimp in Nestle's efforts to push powdered milk on third world mothers and forced GE out of the nuclear industry. The tobacco companies have every reason to fear a boycott by a group with a successful record of no-nonsense activism.
We need two things: volunteers and letter-writers! Everyone likes to rant about their favorite cause on the Internet-- take a moment to work for one. Fire off all three of the letters linked to above, or write your own.
Contact INFACT's office in Boston to find out about events and actions in your area! If you can bring an entire group or organization's efforts into the campaign, so much the better.