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Tobacco Companies'
Youth Projects by Dr. Elif Dagli and Sue Lawrence Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco, which is the Canadian Branch of BAT, have developed and marketed several youth projects around the world. These programs tend to use the common tobacco industry themes: "Tobacco should not be sold to youth" or "Smoking is an adult activity". Many countries have laws forbidding the sale of tobacco to youth. Research done by independent sources found that compliance rates for not selling tobacco to youth are low and penalties for selling tobacco to minors are weak and rarely enforced. Studies show that youth are able to buy cigarettes at vendors with minimum to no resistance. Philip Morris has over 57 different programs implemented throughout the world, some are retail focused programs that discourage store owners from selling tobacco to youth. Retailer focused programs allow the tobacco industry to avoid responsibility for the harmfulness of their products. Youth programs created by tobacco industry are ineffective. Stopping the selling of their product does not stop the use of their product. Indeed youth are able to purchase the products regardless or restrictions. Philip Morris has warning labels on some of its packaging stating that "Underage sales are prohibited". It is well known the reasons why youth smoke. They want to appear grown up and adult like. Research on reasons why youth smoke has shown this fact over and over again. By stating on the cigarette package that this is a product for adults only, it states that youth will be seen as an adult if they use this product. Psychological factors also play a role as youth, who feel the need to defy the rules imposed on them, do so by purchasing and using an adult only product. Some of Philip Morris programs are "Action Against Access" and "It's the Law" campaign. British American Tobacco or BAT has over 20 different youth and access programs throughout the world. They also focus on retailer compliance to selling tobacco to minors. One program offered in China used the hand of a policeman on its posters and stickers to give the message that smoking is against the law. As mentioned before, authoritarian messages tend to have the reverse effect on youth who need to rebel and challenge rules as part of their development into adults. Philip Morris has also used the slogan "The power is yours" in some of their campaigns in emerging markets. The aim of these campaigns were to make youth believe that smoking is a decision a free individual can take, undermining the fact that young people before the age of 18 are generally accepted unable to make sensitive decisions like marriage or voting in many countries. Tobacco corporations use their youth campaigns as a means of marketing and showing to others how cooperative and considerate they are. The double message in their campaign is that they are concerned with the health and welfare of youth, they are willing to partner with community members thereby being responsible citizens but they are unwilling to implement strategies recommended to them by tobacco control advocates. Such strategies include: banning all advertising, supporting media campaigns on the harmful effects of smoking, decreasing the acceptability of smoking be restricting smoking in public places and enforcing harsh penalties on vendors that sell tobacco to youth. The Turkish Experience Philip Morris documents showed that in 1992 during the discussions of the second tobacco bill at Turkish Parliament, Philip Morris Turkish headquarters had planned to defeat the bill they called "ad ban proposal". Their plan also contained strategies to give the company a constructive image to mask their destructive intentions in the bill. The major strategy was to approach the Ministry of Education to offer them a youth program. Fortunately, Turkey succeeded to pass an anti-tobacco law in 1996. There had since been several attempts of the tobacco industry to prove the ad ban is useless, to undermine and violate the ad ban and the try to change the law. In 2000, the Faculty of Education at Bosphorus University, one of the oldest universities of Istanbul established by Americans previously under the name of Robert College, announced the start of a project in schools entitled "The Power is Yours". The newspapers articles gave all the prestige to Philip Morris for donating $100,000 to finance the project. The project was about teaching students on the process of decision making, without mentioning smoking. Letters explaining the tobacco industry tactics in various countries were sent to lecturers and researchers involved in the study and to the Dean of the Faculty and the Rector of the University. Their lack of information and naivety were surprising. Media was bombarded by letters sent by " National Committee on Tobacco and Health" warning about the dangers of accepting tobacco money and letting Turkish teenagers be bullied by a foreign industry producing a deadly product. The press, Ministry of Education and the University members were all informed about the Philip Morris document that tried to defeat the ad ban and another youth program offered to the Ministry in 1992. Globalink members had been extremely kind to send their letters to all these key persons. The Ministry stopped the program because of the attention received from the press and international partners. It was thought that supporting the tobacco sponsored program would bring disgrace to the University. Marketing of tobacco and tobacco products continue in Turkey. Items such as hats, jackets, bags, backpacks, shirts and key chains are widely sold in market stalls and stores. Public smoking restrictions on buses and in public places are often ignored. Youth continue to be targets of cigarette marketing. A popular downtown Istanbul shopping area was a recent scene of a cigarette taste testing sponsored by a tobacco company. Youth were paid $5.00 to try several different cigarettes. They were asked their opinions on the appearance of packaging, were encouraged to try various brands and questioned on what they thought about the taste. Youth were given money even if they didn't try a cigarette. Written by Professor, Dr. Elif Dagli and Sue Lawrence
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