Advertising and promotion for these products uses hip-hop imagery, attractive women, and other imagery to appeal to youth in similar ways that Joe Camel did a decade ago. Tobacco products remain virtually unregulated and each day more than 5,000 kids under 18 try their first cigarette, and more than 2,000 become established daily smokers.
Increased marketing efforts for candy-flavored cigarettes came after the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement prohibited tobacco companies from using cartoon characters to sell cigarettes. The surge in advertising from top tobacco companies such as Reynolds American has successfully reached the intended audience -- youth -- in an underhanded manner. Researchers at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, recently released the results of several surveys that showed that 20 percent of smokers ages 17 to 19 smoked flavored cigarettes in the past 30 days while only 6 percent of smokers over the age of 25 did.
"It's appalling that the tobacco industry is not held responsible for the deadly products it continues to market and sell to young people," said John Kirkwood, President and CEO of the American Lung Association. "Clearly, the industry is trying to get young people hooked on smoking and nothing is being done to limit this targeted marketing. Cigarettes, even in assorted candy flavors, cause lung cancer and lung disease and should be banned for the sake of our children."