B.C. Author gives teens the straight dope on tobacco marketing to kids
by Dave Sulz, Lethbridge Herald January 17, 2006
Georgina Lovell is trying to rescue young people from a deadly sniper. The tobacco industry has teens and young adults in its sights, Lovell warned Monday in a talk aimed at saving others from the same fate that befell her parents. Her father, a life-long smoker, died of lung cancer and her mother is seriously ill with emphysema as a result of secondhand smoke.
The B.C. based journalist, author of the book You Are The Target: Big Tobacco - Lies, Scams and Now the Truth, spoke to students at the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Community College as a kickoff to National Non-Smoking Week.
Lovell's message wasn't simply the well-documented dangers of smoking, but also the deception used by the tobacco industry. She quoted formerly secret corporate documents that became public as the result of a massive class action lawsuit against the tobacco industry in the 1990's.
For example, Lovell noted the tobacco industry steadfastly denied marketing its products to children. Yet in one of the corporate documents used as evidence of the lawsuit, the industry admitted, "The base of our business is the high school student".
Lovell, who quit smoking more than 30 years ago, related other material which showed not only the tobacco industry's callous view of the people in its target market, but also rampant disregard for the dangers of its products.
If any other consumer product was proven to be as dangerous as tobacco, Lovell said, "we wouldn't tolerate it".
To maintain its market, the tobacco industry needs thousands of replacement smokers each day in North America, she said, "That's how many either quit or die. Every day."
Lovell said afterward she hoped her talk opened some eyes. "I noticed a few jaws dropping," she added.
Her aim, she said "is to give people something to think about."
She spent four years researching material for her book, and during her research of tobacco industry documents, "I couldn't believe what I was reading," she said.
Jenny Yakimyshyn, co-chairman of Students for Tobacco Reduction, hoped Lovell's talk will raise awareness that college and university students are, indeed, the targets of tobacco marketing.
"We're the only age group that hasn't decreased," she added.
