| YOU ARE THE TARGET Big Tobacco: Lies, Scams - Now The Truth book Project Moving Target Tobacco Awareness Peer Mentor Program companion classroom curriculum by Georgina Lovell |
| POSITIVE LANGUAGE NEEDED NOW "Do you mind if I visibly exhale in your face, dump ashes in your lap, burn a hole in your shirt, smell up your hair, make you sick to your stomach and double your chance of cancer?" (that is what a smoker is asking every time they ask if you mind if they smoke) The words we use to describe ourselves are important. Our position is positive, and our words should be positive too. Non-smoker is negative. You don't call yourself a non-alcoholic, non-nazi, non-rapist, non-child abuser or non criminal. Why call yourself a nonsmoker? Why define yourself as the opposite of something you don't want to be? That's a negative way to look at yourself. If someone asks you if you are a smoker, answer the same way you would if someone asked you if you're a nazi or a child abuser. Q. Are you a nazi? A. I'm not a nazi! Q. Are you a smoker? A. I'm not a smoker! Use positive words to express your health. For example, I'm healthy, smoke-free, pro-health, a health advocate, in favor of clean indoor air, and normal. Smoking is un-healthy, smoky, anti-health, anti clean indoor air, and abnormal. The tobacco cartel is anti-health, anti-truth and anti-youth. The most successful advocacy groups identify their positions with positive language. Greenpeace is not anti-pollution, anti-war. "Pro-choice" is a very positive way to support abortion. "Pro-life" is a very positive way to oppose it. "Animal rights activists" receive much more support than "anti-fur" activists. For a case study on positive language, one need look no further than the Gulf War. American missiles were the "patriot" missiles. Iraqi missiles were "scuds". We are the health advocates; they are anti-health. In a battle of pro-smoking vs. anti-smoking we will always lose. In a battle of pro-health vs. anti-health we will always win. Below is a list of words that help us and hurt them. Review these words and make them part of your vocabulary. Find a different way to say "anti-smoking" or "non smoker" ! |
| the following is reprinted by kind permission of Joe Cherner |
| WORDS THAT HELP US HEALTH ADVOCATE: Health Advocate is positive, something that everyone wants to be. PRO-HEALTH: Pro Health automatically implies that the opposition is anti-health. IN FAVOR OF CLEAN INDOOR AIR: Everyone is in favor of clean indoor air and will support your position. Never say anti-smoking! HEALTHY: in 50 years of Superman comics, Lois Lane was a healthy woman. Philip Morris paid $50,000 to feature Marlboro in Superman movies, and Lois Lane chain smoked Marlboro Lights. |
| MAKE THESE WORDS PART OF YOUR VOCABULARY |
| WORDS THAT TELL THE TRUTH TOBACCO CARTEL: Four companies (Philip Morris, RJR, Brown & Williamson & Loews) control 99% of the market. They raise prices together, lobby together and use a common spokesman. ANTI-HEALTH: The tobacco cartel kills more than 400,000 each year. ANTI-TRUTH: For more than 50 years, the tobacco cartel has lied about disease and addiction and claimed it doesn't target youth. ANTI-YOUTH: The tobacco cartel targets young people to replace dead smokers. TOBACCO ADDICTION not "habit". The Surgeon General's 1986 Report clearly says "addiction". TOBACCO SMOKE POLLUTION (TSP) Environmental Tobacco Smoke is too clean a term. Tobacco smoke pollution is much stronger. |
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