Students Working Against Tobacco

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USE YOUR VOICE:  CALL TO ACTION
SPOTLIGHT: TOBACCO RETAIL
 

We are writing to you to tell you how the tobacco industry targets youth through marketing and advertising. Tobacco’s Youth Engagement help youth uncover point-of-sale (POS) issues in our commu­nities.  We are the Voices to highlight the occurrence of tobacco point-of-sale advertising and the effects that such advertisements have on younger generations. Research indicates that exposure to POS advertising has several touch points in engaging consumers to consider tobacco: smoking initiation, continued use and undermining quit attempts.

 

Research also indicates that youth are three times more sensitive to tobacco adver­tising than adults. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 400,000 un­derage individuals become smokers each year.

Additionally, the impact of tobacco POS advertising becomes magnified in cases where tobacco retailer density for a given community is particularly high or stores canvased with POS tobacco advertising are in school zone.  For example, tobacco products are packaged to look like products that are typically marketed towards kids (such as candy) and products and advertisements are placed where we are likely to see them in retail locations.

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We created a POS Sale Presenation  to share with you what is POS promotion, the problem, Solutions, and what we know and how to get involved with policies change in our community.