BT is at it again! By trying to sneek around the FDA regulation of not being able to use misleading descriptors like "light," "mild," and "low tar." This time they present to you...Color coded packs! The former "regular" cigarettes are in the darker boxes and the so-called "light" cigarettes are in the light colored boxes. Anyone would figure this one out.
There is no safe cigarette!
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
The FDA laws are now coming into affect. Large, bold warning labels are now seen on all tobacco ads starting this month. The new rules require more prominent health warnings on all smokless tobacco product ads and will kick in next year for cigarette products. Check out the older ads, the warning labels were small, hard to see and in the corner. Now they are huge across the entire bottow of the ad in black and white. Read the whole article from the New York Times.
The tobacco industry sees us teens as replacement smokers (link) and relentlessly targets us to use their products. Based on sales the tobacco industry's bigest seller is the cigarette. However, as more states go smoke-free (READ: WI) the tobacco industry needs to find a new way to make money. The answer? Smokeless/Spit tobacco...and they look just like candy. I love candy (especially Junior Mints...but I digress) and so do my friends. But don’t be fooled, these products still have the same harmful chemicals found in cigarette. It may look like candy, but looks can be deceiving. And as FACT members you easily see through this and see the products for what they realy are...products that when used as directed with KILL you.
It’s so close we can almost taste it…err…smell it…check that…not smell it! Not inhaling Big Tobacco’s toxic smoke that is. On sevenfive10 (July 5th) WI will become a smoke-free state! Finally, after years and years of fighting for smoke-free air, our day is right around the corner. FACT played a BIG role in getting WI to be smoke-free. Now we still need to take action to make sure the transition to the new law is as smooth as possible. Check out the FACTivisms on your member account to see how you can help spread the word about sevenfive10!
While we struggle to avoid the clearly harmful effects of cigarettes and some of our own friends and families just can't seem to quit... how can the presence of NICOTINE (the addictive ingredient in cigarettes) be increasing?
Harvard scientists just found that the major tobacco companies have been increasing the amount of nicotine in their cigarettes by 11% over the last seven years without warning anybody (read the science here or watch it on the news).
While telling everyone that they offer a safe product and a choice, tobacco companies continue to design cigarettes to deliver smokers a dose of nicotine that ADDICTS them... keeping them coming back for more even when they don't want to.
While most are trying to QUIT, the companies are trying to ADDICT.
Sound skeezy? It is. Click here to do something about it.
Red Monroe - Carolina Cigarette (m3u free download): Red Monroe's shouts explode out of Texas where rocking is the dusty nature and borrowing a Radiohead guitar riff (does anyone know from which Radiohead song?) is seamlessly strung. Those who say music is addictive have no comparison to the chemically-gripping power of tobacco. And even if music was addictive, not being able to stop listening certainly wouldn't kill me...
-- The Fist
New battery powered electronic cigarettes that turn nicotine into smoke-like vapor are being marketed to YOU. Referred to as the “smoker’s smart choice” (http://www.ecigaretteschoice.com/), these “alternatives” to cigarettes claim to contain no carcinogens; but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) disagrees (http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm173222.htm) .
The products have not been submitted to the FDA for evaluation, so they have no way of knowing the exact amount of harm e-cigarettes can do to consumers; however, after laboratory testing a sample, the FDA has found that they CONTAIN CARCINOGENS and TOXIC CHEMICALS.
Big T is up to its dirty tricks again. Watch out, and don’t be fooled by unfounded claims (http://www.ecigarettesusa.com/) and deceptive marketing. Fight back (http://www.fightwithfact.com/fact_in_action.php) and dispel the lies!
Today, this 1950's Flintstones ad is hilarious. Hilarious that someone actually thought Fred Flintstone should be selling cigarettes. But it becomes more disturbing when I realize the exact same strategy is being used today to place cigarettes in the hands of our high-profile celebrities... hiphop artists, movie stars, and Sarah Jessica Parker.
What's the difference?
My prediction is that in the near future, a cigarette placed in the hands of socially-conscious hiphop artist and a beautiful white-toothed model will look just as ridiculous to everyone.
Birdmonster - Cause You Can (right click, save as to download mp3): Birdmonster is a guitar-driven indie band from San Francisco, California whose speedy rock rushes like they've got somewhere more important to go.
-- The Fist
The website of Philip Morris (the maker of Marlboro) now notes that their product is addictive and causes disease and death... dangers that they lied about for thirty years after the Surgeon General (USA's head doctor) warned everyone of the danger.
In 2006, the Surgeon General made another announcement: that the secondhand smoke debate is OVER... it clearly causes disease in children and adult non-smokers. Phillip Morris' website agrees with this fact and the company vowed in 2004 that it would no longer try to stop efforts to protect people from the dangers of secondhand smoke (read about it here). Yet, this week Philip Morris is breaking its promise by fighting against smoke-free air in at least two different states (checkout the news).
Tobacco companies are changing their image to look like they’ve got our backs, but just continuing to protect their harmful products above our health. We’ve seen this before when tobacco companies started making ads against their own product. WHY? To tell us the truth about smoking? No, their ads made anti-smoking look as uncool as possible (here’s a lame one).
Snowden, an Atlanta-based rock band, sings about the current state of rebellious irony and saracasm in our youth culture that the tobacco industry taps into by trying to make anti-smoking movements seem uncool. The companies think if they make dopey ads, we’ll direct our sarcasm towards make fun of non-smoking. The part that they forget is that sarcasm requires intelligence.
We know the facts about tobacco and the industry is right about one thing: WE ARE anti lame anti-smoking ads. But, we’re not buying cigarettes… we're going to do something about it! We're going to make our own. Express your creativity (with art, music, video, dance, etc) to add to next year’s FACT commercials and your talent may be broadcast across the state (more info here)!
As our friends are surrounded by smoking and our parents and relatives are suffering from tobacco-related diseases, our generation cannot afford to trust the tobacco industry to do the right thing… or we’ll be thirty years too late on the issue of secondhand smoke as well.
LET'S START TODAY.
Snowden - Anti-Anti (downloadable mp3)
Joss Stone (ft Common) - Tell Me What We Gonna Do (click to stream Windows Media)
-- The Fist
The U.S. Senate struck Big Tobacco this month, giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over the industry.
The new bill, which was passed in the House of Representatives in April, will give the FDA power to limit nicotine in cigarettes, to drastically reduce ads that glorify tobacco, and to ban flavored products targeted to young people.
Although differences between the Senate and the House versions of the bill will need to be resolved, the bill is now closer than ever to becoming law.
