Protecting young people from industry manipulation and protecting them from tobacco and nicotine consumption

For decades, the tobacco industry has been deliberately using aggressive and effective strategies to attract young people to its products in order to make them fall into nicotine addiction. The publication of internal tobacco industry documents perfectly reveals this strategy. From product design to marketing campaigns, the tobacco industry has multiplied techniques to replace the millions of people who die prematurely from smoking with new consumers. In response to the colossal effort of the tobacco companies to convert the younger generations to smoking, World No Tobacco Day 2020 is a counter-marketing campaign, allowing young people to engage in the fight against tobacco companies and resist them. The global campaign for World No Tobacco Day 2020 will have three main goals:

• Deconstructing myths and denouncing the manipulation tactics used by tobacco manufacturers, in particular marketing strategies targeting young people, notably via new tobacco products, or new flavors, particularly popular with young consumers.
• To offer young people a reading grid on the intentions and tactics of manufacturers to attract current and future generations to tobacco products.
• Provide different influencers with the means to understand tobacco issues, to protect and defend the younger generations (in pop culture, on social networks, at home or in the classroom) but also the means to protect and defend young people. The challenge is to catalyze change in the fight against the tobacco industry

How do tobacco companies manipulate young people?

• By the proliferation of new nicotine products placed on the market which cause confusion and reinforce the smoking norm
• By using attractive aromas, especially for young people in their products, such as cherry, chewing gum, cotton candy, facilitating the entry into the consumption of tobacco products with a reduction in pungency and leading young people to underestimate the risks to their health.
• Through elegant designs and attractive products, ergonomic and misleading, such as products in the shape of USB sticks or sweets).
• By promoting products presented as “less harmful” or “cleaner” alternatives than conventional cigarettes, despite the lack of objective scientific evidence to support these claims.
• Through celebrity and influencer support and sponsorship activities, to promote tobacco products.
• Through marketing at points of sale, particularly those frequented by young people, including near candy, snack or soda stands and by providing incentives to vendors to ensure their products are displayed near places frequented by young people.
• By selling single cigarettes and other tobacco products near schools, allowing young people to easily and cheaply access tobacco products or by distributing tobacco products during cultural events popular with young people.
• Through indirect marketing of tobacco products in audiovisual productions particularly popular with young people (films, series, video games).
• By tobacco vending machines in places frequented by young people, covered with attractive advertising and packaging, thereby violating the regulations on the sale of tobacco products to minors.
• By increasing the number of disputes aimed at weakening public anti-smoking policies, opposing the requirement to display health messages on packets, the plain packaging of tobacco packets, bans on advertising and promotions, and regulations limiting access and marketing to children (including provisions prohibiting the sale and advertising of tobacco products near schools).

Call to action

It is essential to prevent new generations from falling into the traps set by the tobacco industry, which is responsible for the deaths of eight million people worldwide each year. The World Health Organization urges influencers of the younger generations to deconstruct and denounce the manipulation strategies of cigarette companies aimed at creating a new generation of smokers. It is necessary to enable young people to resist the influence of this industry by revealing its duplicity and lies and by refusing to consume its products. ©Tobacco Free Generation

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| ©National Committee Against Smoking |