Tuesday, March 29, 2011

As Part of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Event, Florida Anti-Tobacco Group Lies to Public About Tobacco Industry

According to an anti-tobacco group - SWAT (Florida) - the tobacco companies are making candy-flavored cigarettes to try to entice youth to smoke. This claim means that the tobacco companies are violating federal law, which precludes them from marketing candy-flavored cigarettes.

The specific claim is as follows: "No joke. Big Tobacco is making candy-flavored tobacco to get you to smoke. Do they think you're stupid? Yes, they do. But you can do something about it. On March 23rd, join kids from all across the nation for Kick Butts Day and stand up against Big Tobacco."

The clear implication of this statement is that tobacco companies are making candy-flavored cigarettes. The assertion is not that Big Tobacco is making candy-flavored tobacco to get you to chew, or to snuff, but that the companies are using these products to get you to smoke. Thus, the implied claim is that the companies are producing candy-flavored cigarettes, not just flavored smokeless tobacco.

Since such products are banned by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, SWAT's claim amounts to an accusation that the tobacco companies are breaking the law. This is quite a serious accusation.

The Rest of the Story

There are two aspects to this story that are not at all surprising.

The first is that an anti-smoking group is lying. This seems to have become acceptable in the tobacco control movement.

The second is that the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is, in a sense, behind this lie. It turns out that the SWAT group's campaign against flavored tobacco products which entice youth to smoke is part of an event called Kick Butts Day, which is organized and run by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The false accusation against Big Tobacco by SWAT is part of this event.

The false accusation against Big Tobacco is not just found in a single poster for the event. It is also found on the web site of the SWAT organization. The site contains a document, entitled "Not for Sale: Big Tobacco's Sweet Tooth for Addiction," which states: "One of the tobacco industry’s most bold new tactics is the creation of candy flavored cigarettes...". It then lists as talking points the following:

• "RJ Reynolds, who formerly used cartoon character Joe Camel to market their products, have a new line of flavored Camel cigarettes with names like Twista’ Lime, and seasonal flavored cigarettes like Bayou Blast Mardi Gras Berry Blend."

• "Kool cigarettes now come in a special version called Smooth Fusion. The Smooth Fusions range in flavor from Caribbean Chill, Midnight Berry, Mintrigue and Mocha Taboo."

• "Several brands of seasonal Camel cigarettes are named to reflect alcohol flavors like Margarita Mixer and Beach Breezer."

These talking points are all lies. Reynolds American removed all its candy-flavored cigarettes from the market five years ago. There are no lime, berry, mint, mocha, or margarita cigarettes currently on the market.

While one cannot blame the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids directly for these lies, I think that the Campaign does bear some responsibility for them since this is its event. Apparently, the Campaign is not giving out accurate information to the youths who are involved in Kick Butts Day. They are apparently not informing the youths that the tobacco companies now comply with federal regulations against putting candy flavors in cigarettes -- a law that resulted in no public health benefit because no kids were smoking candy-flavored cigarettes.

The youths' confusion on this point is directly attributable to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. In the Kick Butts Day activity guide, it suggests holding an event to protest Big Tobacco's use of flavored tobacco products to addict kids, but nowhere does the guide inform youths that this applies only to smokeless tobacco. Nowhere does it tell the youths that candy-flavored cigarettes have been off the market for five years. Nowhere does it tell the youths that federal law prohibits candy-flavored cigarettes and that all tobacco companies are in compliance with that law.

No wonder the youths were confused about this. I can hardly blame them. It is the Campaign which really needs to bear responsibility for this.

Youth activism is a great thing, but not if youths are not properly educated about the facts. When youths are used as puppets by an organization - as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids uses them - it is a disservice both to the youths and to the public.

On the other hand, these activities do seem to be succeeding in training the next generation to move on to work for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. After all, they apparently now know how to lie to and deceive the public for political gain.


UPDATE - Tuesday, March 29, 10:50 a.m: I have been informed by Jeff Stier, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, that he has communicated with the SWAT group, which explained that its claim that Big Tobacco is marketing candy-flavored tobacco to entice youth to smoke is based on the contention that the marketing of candy-flavored snus will lead to youth use of snus which will in turn lead to kids starting to smoke cigarettes. I thank Jeff for this update and for the original tip that led to this post.

If this explanation is correct, then the web site statement is terribly misleading, because it implies that Big Tobacco is still marketing candy-flavored cigarettes, rather than this convoluted explanation of how candy-flavored snus is going to cause kids to start smoking. If this is what was meant, than the site should simply have stated so. Moreover, the site should have backed up the claim with evidence to support this contention. I am not aware of any such evidence but I'm sure if this group is making the claim, it must have some evidence to support it.

Unfortunately, I still have to stick with my argument that the group is lying to the public, because it continues to claim, in this document on its site, that:

• "RJ Reynolds, who formerly used cartoon character Joe Camel to market their products, have a new line of flavored Camel cigarettes with names like Twista’ Lime, and seasonal flavored cigarettes like Bayou Blast Mardi Gras Berry Blend."

• "Kool cigarettes now come in a special version called Smooth Fusion. The Smooth Fusions range in flavor from Caribbean Chill, Midnight Berry, Mintrigue and Mocha Taboo."

• "Several brands of seasonal Camel cigarettes are named to reflect alcohol flavors like Margarita Mixer and Beach Breezer."

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