I was doing a program a few weeks ago and had two 17 year old boys who were both heavy smokers, three pack a day smokers in fact. I was quite amazed at them
reaching this quantity so early in their lives. When I went to do my demonstrations I asked them for the cigarette to use but neither of them brought any. I
suspect they felt we would have confiscated them. Anyway, I went into my stash of recently tossed cigarettes from the clinic I finished in July and went for
the Marlboro thinking this would be among their brand of choice since it often seemed to be in the past when I was doing kids. Neither of them in fact smoked
Marlboro, one told me their brand and I was pretty surprised because it was a lesser known one--at least lesser known by me. Generally I don't even pay
attention to brands--nicotine is nicotine as far as I am concerned.
But I thought I better get a little better grip on what people actually smoke and what they think led them to settling on the particular brands they used.
Kids pick up on things like not knowing what is popular and think that this means you are not really up on a topic. So I am just trying to be a little more
prepared. I have monthly meeting set up with one of our local health departments for kids who are sentenced to me for being caught smoking. That is how these
two boys actually came to my program.
I want to point out, it may have been one company marketing better than another that caused you to settle on a particular brand but it is not why you were
actually smoking at the end. The real reason you were smoking in the end was because you were then full-blown nicotine addict. Advertisements can't
addict you, neither can peer pressure or any other external influences. These factors can only encourage you to use a product--the only thing that can
actually cause the addiction is you caving to such influences. This holds true for the first cigarette you ever smoked as well as where you are today. No
situation, no person, and no great marketing campign can cause you lose your quit. You will always remain free as long as you always remember to never take
another puff!
Joel

