Maybe it’s flattering to think tobacco companies are willing to spend millions to get you to smoke. But it’s only because their current customers are sick and dying. That means less business—and less money—for them.

Their product is addictive. Deadly. And it’s sold with lies.
As much as a third of all youth who experiment with
smoking do so because of effective tobacco industry marketing.

• Each day, about 1,200 people will die from tobacco-related diseases.
• Almost one out of three kids in Maine will have become an addicted smoker by the time he or she has reached young adulthood.
• 27,000 Maine kids (currently under age 18)
  will die early from using tobacco.
• Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000
  chemical compounds, with at least 11 of them
  known to cause cancer.
• According to its own internal documents,
  the tobacco industry uses sweet flavorings
  to make tobacco taste better to children.
• In Maine, the portion of the total spent
  promoting tobacco is $73 million annually.
• 81.3% of youth (ages 12-17) who smoke prefer Marlboro, Camel and Newport—the three most heavily advertised brands.
• A study in the American Journal of Public Health showed that adolescents who owned a tobacco promotional item and named a cigarette brand whose advertising attracted their attention were twice as likely to become established smokers than those who did neither.
• A survey released in March 2006 showed that kids were more than twice as likely as adults to recall tobacco advertising. While only 28% of all adults recalled seeing a tobacco ad in the two weeks prior to the survey, 53% of kids aged 12 to 17 reported seeing tobacco ads.
• A study of more than 100,000 teens found that tobacco industry ads to prevent youth smoking were mostly ineffective, in some cases doing more harm than good.
• In 2006, a U.S. District Judge ruled that major tobacco companies continue to deceive the public by “recruiting new smokers (the majority of whom are under the age of 18), preventing current smokers from quitting, and thereby sustaining the industry.”
  

Want to know more?

www.UnleashYourC.com
Maine’s interactive youth website that addresses the dangers of smoking through stimulating games, quizzes, photos and videos.

www.thetruth.com
More truth than the tobacco industry can handle. View the latest TV spots and get facts, games, and downloads.

http://tfk.grassroots.com/act/
E-Champions Action Center
From the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, this site tells you what action is being taken against big tobacco nationally and locally and how to help.