Truth Initiative Documentary Looks at Tobacco Industry's Predatory Strategies

Produced by Truth Initiative, “Black Lives/Black Lungs: The Journey of a Stolen Leaf”[1] is a short documentary (approximately 14 minutes) that traces the links between the history of African-Americans and the transformations of the tobacco industry.

Lincoln Mondy, the documentary's director, had already been a Truth Initiative winner during a call for projects in 2016. He had then produced a first part of "Black Lives/Black Lungs"[2], devoted to how the tobacco industry steered African-American smokers toward menthol cigarettes.

The film he's presenting today starts from the same base, but focuses more on how the tobacco industry is hindering the ban on flavors, and more specifically menthol, while electronic cigarettes have dethroned traditional cigarettes in the United States.[3].

From slavery to the “captive” market for menthol cigarettes

Constructed in five parts, the documentary takes us back to the origins of tobacco cultivation, a plant considered sacred by Native Americans before being "stolen" from them by English colonists along with their land. In 1630, English tobacco producers obtained permission to use black slavery to cultivate their tobacco plantations in the Americas, thus closely linking the rise of the tobacco industry to that of slavery and then global capitalism.

After World War II, the African-American population migrated to the northern United States and created a new market in its own right, which was immediately invested in by tobacco companies. They began to focus the marketing of menthol cigarettes on the African-American public, relying on false medical claims. For example, advertisers recommended this type of cigarette to people with asthma, by featuring "prescribing" doctors. This ethnic marketing strategy paid off, since 84% of African-American smokers smoked menthol cigarettes in 2014, compared to 5% in 1953. In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned almost all additives in cigarettes, but lobbying efforts by manufacturers allowed them to remove menthol.

Menthol, a support for the development of electronic cigarettes

In the 2010s, as cigarette consumption dropped significantly in the United States, menthol was used as one of the main vectors for the development of e-cigarettes. The marketing of menthol e-cigarettes was then significantly oriented towards the African-American public, in order to capture African-American smokers of menthol cigarettes. “Don't quit, switch to JUUL,” the advertisements said, to which health professionals responded with “Don't switch, quit.”

E-cigarette manufacturers, the main ones being tobacco companies, have in turn adopted a medicalizing discourse, focused on reducing risks and harms, in order to give scientific support to their products. In order to maintain the growth of the e-cigarette market, manufacturers have also increased legal actions to prevent or delay the banning of flavors – and in particular menthol – in vaping products. The documentary also shows how JUUL, a third of whose shares were then owned by Altria, subsidized an African-American hospital as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. African-American activists, for their part, denounce the compromises of community movement leaders who accept funding from tobacco and vaping companies and contribute to the acceptance of these products.

Available for free access on the Internet, the film “Black Lives/Black Lungs: The Journey of a Stolen Leaf” is also offered by Truth Initiative for the running of awareness-raising workshops in schools.

Keywords: African Americans, Black Lives, menthol, JUUL

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[1] “Black Lives/Black Lungs: The Journey of a Stolen Leaf.” In English version only, YouTube, published on February 28, 2023, consulted on 1^er March 2023.

[2] In English version only, YouTube, produced in 2017, published in 2018, consulted on 1^er March 2023.

[3] Truth Initiative, New Documentary Takes Hard Look at Tobacco Industry's Predatory Tactics for New Generations, published on February 28, 2023, consulted on 1^er March 2023.