KINGSTON- Kingston City Schools Freshman Jasim Bevier, 8th Grader Ariana Bevier, and Sullivan County BOCES, Freshman Sky Franco and Ricki Jones recently joined some one-hundred teens from around the state at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, N.Y. at a four-day youth summit to educate, empower and equip them to fight back against the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry in their home communities. The teens are part of Reality Check, a NYS Department of Health-funded program. They will employ what they learned to raise awareness about Big Tobacco’s long history of aggressive marketing and promotion of menthol-flavored tobacco products to young people, people of color, LGBTQIA+ communities and other groups, and its deadly impact on them.
“Big Tobacco uses bright colors and “fun” flavors to get teens to use their products,” said Ricki Jones. “I’m excited to help others learn to stop Big Tobacco.”
“Watching youth come alive with knowledge and passion at Youth Summit has been a joy,” said Jessica Kenneda, TFAC Reality Check Coordinator. “I am eager for them to take what they’ve learned this past week and put it into action into their schools and communities, as they work toward a tobacco free generation.”
The tobacco industry’s own documents say that ‘today’s teenager is tomorrow’s potential regular customer.’ Reality Check youth are telling their communities across the state that they refuse to be a target for Big Tobacco or be recruited by them. Reality Check’s message is clear: Menthol is not just a flavor. It’s a way for Big Tobacco to attract and addict us. There’s nothing just about that.
Tobacco companies have spent enormous resources tracking the behaviors and preferences of youth under 21 and have a long history of unjustly marketing and promoting menthol-flavored tobacco products to select groups. For decades, tobacco companies have targeted and harmed the black and LGBTQIA+ communities with hard-hitting menthol-flavored tobacco product marketing. The companies use flavors like menthol in tobacco products to make them more appealing to new users, almost all of whom are under 18. Eighty-one percent of youth who have ever tried tobacco started with a flavored product; more than half (54 percent) of youth ages 12-17 who smoke use menthol cigarettes. Recently released data from the New York State Department of Health show one in five youth in the state use tobacco products.
Youth who initiate using menthol cigarettes are more likely to become addicted and become long-term daily smokers. Menthol provides a cooling sensation, masking the harshness of tobacco smoke, making it easier to start smoking and harder to quit.
During the summit, the teens were often seen wearing “It’s Not Just,” T-shirts, representing Tobacco Free NYS’s current statewide campaign to raise awareness of the harmful effects of menthol-flavored tobacco products. The “It’s Not Just” dual meanings are that menthol is not JUST a flavor, but also a way for tobacco companies to attract and addict new smokers, and also that the communities targeted by the tobacco industry experience unfair and unjust health burdens resulting from tobacco use.
The teens learned about the impact of tobacco industry marketing, including:
- 90 percent of adult smokers say they first tried smoking by age 18.
- Overall tobacco use among NYS youth was 20.8%, or one in five youth, in 2022.
- The amount spent on cigarette advertising and promotion increased from $7.84 billion in 2020 to $8.06 billion in 2021.
- To catch the attention of youth, tobacco companies use colorful packaging that sometimes imitates the packaging of popular candy brands.
- In addition, tobacco product advertisements in stores are often at children’s eye level (less than three feet off the ground).
- Menthol cigarettes, in particular, lead to increased smoking initiation among youth and young adults, greater addiction and decreased success in quitting smoking. Menthol-flavored tobacco is easier to start and harder to quit than unflavored tobacco.
Social media posts about youth summit can be found using #RCSummit 23, #NotJustMenthol and #SeenEnoughTobacco.
