The U.S. Government is now in the process of trying a case against the tobacco industry. Although debating the merits of either sides arguments is contrary to Our Courtesies the trial itself will generate a wealth of factual information.
The complaint filed by the Department of Justice outlined a number of factual allegations associated with youth dependency that would benefit youth around the world to read, understand and appreciate.
From childhood dreams of experiencing the adventures of life on the range as a cowboy to dreams of traveling to distant lands such as Egypt and riding a camel, the cowboy and camel are bait that if swollowed will bite for a lifetime.
Marketing images of pretty girls and handsome guys, fun, big smiles, and groups getting together to share great times, it's all bait inviting you and your friends to quickly become addicted to one of the most captivating chemicals on earth. In truth, addiction to smoking nicotine will rob you of your complexion, your sweet breath, your lung capacity and endurance to exercise vigerously and enjoy life, your freedom, and a roughly a 50% chance of losing more than 5,000 days of life.
Below are the facts that the U.S. Department of Justice is today attempting to prove in open court. The numbers are references to each factual allegation in its complaint.

The United States of America vs. the U.S. Tobacco Industry
Complaint - Filed: February 28, 2001

G. Targeting the Youth Market

92. For most of this century, it has been illegal to sell cigarettes to children in most states. Currently, it is illegal to sell cigarettes to children under the age of 18 in all states.

93. Defendants used the Tobacco Institute to shield the Cigarette Companies' advertising to minors. In 1964, defendants publicized a voluntary "cigarette advertising code" that had been agreed to by all the major cigarette manufacturers. The code prohibited advertising directed at young people or the use of celebrities or sports figures in advertisements for cigarettes. Over the next thirty years, defendants, primarily through publications of the Tobacco Institute and in congressional testimony, reiterated their pledge to avoid advertising directed at young people, while at the same time individual companies were aggressively marketing cigarettes to young people through advertising.

94. Despite the illegality of sales to children, and despite denying that they do so, the Cigarette Companies have engaged in a campaign to market cigarettes to children. The Cigarette Companies have long known that recruiting new smokers when they are teenagers ensures a stream of profits well into the future because these new smokers will become addicted and continue to smoke for many years, and the young smokers are "replacements" for older smokers who either reduce or cease smoking or die.

95. Recognizing the profits to be had from this illegal market, the Cigarette Companies researched how to target their marketing at children and actively marketed cigarettes to children. As a result of this research -- including research conducted in the 1950's into the smoking habits of 12-year-olds -- defendants have long known that young people tend to begin smoking for reasons unrelated to the presence of nicotine in cigarette smoke, but then become confirmed, long-term smokers because they become addicted to nicotine. Defendants are further aware that although beginning smokers realize that there are some health risks associated with long-term smoking, beginning smokers almost universally fail to appreciate the addictive nature of cigarette smoking, and therefore fail to appreciate the risk that, by engaging in smoking while they are adolescents, they will become long-term smokers because of the development of an addiction to nicotine. Moreover, the earlier a person begins to smoke, the more likely it is that he or she will develop a smoking related disease.

96. The Cigarette Companies have aggressively targeted their advertising campaigns to children. Cigarette Companies' advertising glamorizes smoking and its content is intended to entice young people to smoke, for example, as a rite of passage into adulthood or as a status symbol. Among the techniques used by the Cigarette Companies to attract underage smokers were advertising in stores near high schools, promoting brands heavily during spring and summer breaks, giving cigarettes away at places where young people are likely to be present in large numbers, paying motion picture producers for product placement in motion pictures designed to attract large youth audiences, placing advertisements in magazines commonly read by teenagers, and sponsoring sporting events and other activities likely to appeal to teenagers.

97. Dining the 1970's and 1980's, Reynolds' substantial market research indicated that Philip Morris, and particularly its Marlboro brand, was dominating the youth market. Reynolds recognized that, in order to maintain its profits over the long term, it was critically important to attract its own cadre of teen-age smokers. Internal Reynolds documents specifically cited the need to recruit youths as "replacement smokers." Thus, Reynolds developed the Joe Camel campaign - based on a cartoon character - to appeal to the youngest potential smokers. In 1988, Reynolds began a massive dissemination of products such as matchbooks, signs, clothing, mugs and drink can holders advertising Camel cigarettes. The advertising was effective in attracting adolescents and, as a result of the campaign, the number of teenage smokers who smoked Camel cigarettes rose dramatically.

98. Despite the overwhelming evidence that they have deliberately sought to target young people for the sale of cigarettes, defendants have denied such activities in false and misleading communications to the public, to legislative and regulatory bodies, and in judicial proceedings. For example, in 1981, Brown & Williamson denied that it geared its advertising to young people following criticism in a press report. Others have followed suit: Reynolds ran a series of advertisements in 1984 claiming that "We don't advertise to children."

99. To avoid full disclosure of its practices regarding Joe Camel, in 1991, while the Federal Trade Commission was investigating Reynolds' practices of advertising and marketing to children, Reynolds instructed its advertising agency to destroy documents in the advertising agency's possession related to the Joe Camel campaign.

100. The Cigarette Companies have long maintained that their expenditures on advertising and promotion - more than $68 billion between 1954 and 1997-was directed solely at persuading current smokers to switch brands, not to attracting new smokers and not to attract children. These statements were false and misleading, and were intended to ensure that they could continue to entice young people to smoke and become addicted by defeating potential efforts by parents and governmental entities to stop such marketing efforts.

101. In July 1969, the Chairman of the Tobacco Institute, Joseph F. Cullman, III, testified before a Senate Commerce subcommittee: "It is the intention of the cigarette manufacturers to avoid advertising directed to young persons... to avoid advertising which represents that cigarette smoking is essential to social prominence, success, or sexual attraction; and to refrain from depicting smokers engaged in sports or other activities requiring stamina or conditioning beyond those required in normal recreation."

102. In 1983, the Tobacco Institute published a pamphlet entitled "Voluntary Initiatives of a Responsible Industiy." The pamphlet noted that "in 1964, the industry adopted a cigarette advertising code prohibiting advertising, marketing and sampling directed at young people." The pamphlet made the claim that "all companies continue to observe the principles of this code."

103. The Cigarette Companies actively targeted their marketing to children with full knowledge that sales to children were illegal, that children would not appreciate the dangers of the product or its addictiveness, that most of the children who began to smoke would become addicted, and that a significant percentage would develop smoking-related diseases or suffer premature death as a result. They denied doing so with full knowledge that such denials were false and misleading.

U.S. Department of Justice Source Link: