Tobacco Center Faculty Blog

February 5, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

CVS's decision to stop selling cigarettes has been generating a huge positive response and, as I discussed yesterday, could make a substantial contribution to further denormalizing smoking and the tobacco industry.
 
I was just on NPR's The Takeaway talking about the implications of the CVS decision and they played a clip of the movie Thank You for Smoking that highlighted how effectively Big Tobacco used Hollywood to hook kids on cigs.  In my comments I made the point that onscreen smoking is the most important factor promoting smoking to kids today and an R rating for smoking would prevent the early deaths of 1,000,000 kids alive today.
 

February 5, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

Yesterday the FDA launched its $115 million anti-smoking ad campaign on television, radio, the internet, and other media.  The ads, designed to educate at risk youth about the loss of control they will suffer if they smoke are well done and strongly presented. 
 
Like the Legacy Foundation's effective "truth" campaign the ads, while directly targeted to youth include messages that have strong potential to "trickle up" to young adults who, as the Surgeon General pointed out in 2012 and again in 2014, are right in the tobacco companies' marketing bulls eye.  These ads, especially the "bully" series also could stimulate older smokers to quit. 
 

February 5, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

In a move that shows real corporate social responsibility CVS/Caremark pharmacies has announced that is it going to stop selling cigarettes.  This is an important substantive move that further removes exposure to tobacco and tobacco marketing from more people's lives and will make an important contribution to reaching former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's vision of a smokefree society.
 
In press accounts CVS had said that they doubt that this move will actually reduce smoking.  I think that is too pessimistic an assessment.  Millions of people visit their pharmacies and removing tobacco imagery will almost certainly help prevent relapse of people who are trying to quit smoking.  It is also one less place (actually over 7000 less places)  that former smokers will be tempted to impulse by a pack of cigarettes.
 

January 28, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

Portrayals of tobacco use in U.S. films appear to have rebounded upward in the past 2 years (Chapter 14). In 2012, youth were exposed to an estimated 14.9 million in-theater tobacco use impressions in youth-rated films (Polansky et al. 2013).  Youth who are exposed to images of smoking in movies are more likely to smoke; those who get the most exposure to onscreen smoking are about twice as likely to begin smoking as those who get the least exposure (USDHHS 2012). [Exec Summary page 15]
 
Actions that would eliminate the depiction of tobacco use in movies, which are produced and rated as appropriate for children and adolescents, could have a significant effect on preventing youth from becoming tobacco users. [Exec Summary, page 15]
 
After the broadcast advertising ban [in 1971], ciga­rette advertising and marketing continued to grow, but shifted to print publications, outdoor billboards, sponsor­ship of sports, placement of brand implants in movies, and a number of other methods.  [page 26]
 

January 28, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

A bipartisan group of 45state attorneys general from both parties sent a strong letter to the US Trade Representative highlighting the threats of the TPP to state (and, by implication, local) tobacco regulation.  This is an exceptionally strong statement and highlights the important role that the State AGs continue to play in tobacco control.   The letter is here.
 
The letter includes many strong and specific legal arguments and is worth reading in full.  One paragraph sums up the problem:

Experience has shown that state and local laws and regulations may be challenged by tobacco companies that aggressively assert claims under bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements, either directly under investor-state provisions or indirectly by instigating and supporting actions by countries that are parties to such agreements. Such agreements can enable these tobacco companies to challenge federal, state, and local laws and regulations under standards and in forums that would not be available under United States law.

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