Are Montana teens targeted by tobacco companies?
Tobacco advertising hasn’t been seen on TV in decades, and in 1998 tobacco companies agreed to discontinue even more marketing practices, after 46 states alleged that tobacco companies were targeting youth with their ads. Despite the restrictions, it’s estimated that tobacco companies spend around $33 million per year advertising in Montana.
Erin Kintop, reACT Youth Empowerment Coordinator, said, “Tobacco industries have been doing a lot of targeting of teens since the 1950′s. They have had to change up their strategies a bit because of new regulations by the FDA, by really using vibrant colors, appealing advertising, tobacco products that are easily concealed in schools and at home.”
The tobacco industry has come up with new smokeless products which Kintop says target youth.
Camel, for instance, is test marketing tobacco sticks, strips, and orbs. The orbs look a lot like Tic Tacs mints, while the sticks resemble toothpicks, and the strips are much like Listerine breath mint strips.
David Howard, a spokesman for the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company, said, “We believe that these products like these, these dissolvable tobacco products, can meet societal expectations. There is no secondhand smoke. There is no spitting. And because they dissolve there is no cigarette butt litter.”
R.J. Reynolds reports that these products are not geared toward young consumers, but instead for current adult tobacco users.
But with a 16% tobacco-use rate among Montana high school students, some say that it’s just one more way to get them hooked and get them hooked early.
Olivia Holter, a senior at Helena High School, said, “I absolutely have friends who are using tobacco products. And they are mostly using it in a social way. Hookah is a huge thing in Helena right now. People will go to someone’s house at night, smoke some hookah and maybe do their homework even.”
Holter says the key to reducing underage use is education.
Last year the State spent $8.5 million on tobacco prevention, much of that on informing youth about the health risks.
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