NCI Report Recommends Strategies to Win the War Against Nation's
Leading Cause of Preventable Death
Washington, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leaders from the federal
government and the nation's public health community today announced the
release of an authoritative National Cancer Institute report that reaches
the government's strongest conclusion to date that tobacco marketing and
depictions of smoking in movies promote youth smoking. The 684-page report,
The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, presents
definitive conclusions that a) tobacco advertising and promotion are
causally related to increased tobacco use, and b) exposure to depictions of
smoking in movies is causally related to youth smoking initiation.
The report also concludes that mass media campaigns can reduce smoking,
especially when combined with other tobacco control strategies. However,
youth smoking prevention campaigns sponsored by the tobacco industry have
been generally ineffective and may actually have increased youth smoking.
This report provides the most current and comprehensive analysis of
more than 1,000 scientific studies on the role of the media in encouraging
and discouraging tobacco use. The report is Monograph 19 in the National
Cancer Institute's Tobacco Control Monograph series examining critical
issues in tobacco prevention and control. Research included in the review
comes from the disciplines of marketing, psychology, communications,
statistics, epidemiology, and public health. The release of the report was
announced today at the National Press Club.
"The media have been used to promote cigarettes and smoking through
infamous advertising icons - such as the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel - and
through tobacco images in Hollywood movies. The media have also been used
to increase smoking cessation and reduce smoking initiation, through paid
advertising campaigns and public service announcements about the dangers of
smoking. This monograph presents the most current and comprehensive
analysis of the scientific evidence on the impact of these forces, and
other media exposures, on beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors concerning
tobacco use," said Ronald M. Davis, M.D., senior scientific editor,
director of the Henry Ford Health System's Center for Health Promotion and
Disease Prevention, and Immediate Past President of the American Medical
Association.
The monograph also concludes that:
-- Cigarettes are one of the most heavily marketed products in the
United States. Between 1940 and 2005, U.S. cigarette manufacturers spent
about $250 billion (in 2006 dollars) on cigarette advertising and
promotion. In 2005, the industry spent $13.5 billion (in 2006 dollars) on
cigarette advertising and promotion in the U.S. -- $37 million per day on
average.
-- Much tobacco advertising targets the psychological needs of
adolescents, such as popularity, peer acceptance and positive self-image.
Advertising creates the perception that smoking will satisfy these needs.
-- Even brief exposure to tobacco advertising influences adolescents'
attitudes and perceptions about smoking and smokers, and adolescents'
intentions to smoke.
-- The depiction of cigarette smoking is pervasive in movies, occurring
in three-quarters or more of contemporary box-office hits. Identifiable
cigarette brands appear in about one-third of movies.
-- When allowed by a nation's constitution, a comprehensive ban on
tobacco advertising and promotion is an effective policy intervention that
prevents tobacco companies from shifting marketing expenditures to
permitted media.
-- The tobacco industry works hard to impede tobacco control media
campaigns, including attempts to prevent or reduce their funding.
Both tobacco industry and tobacco control forces are harnessing the
media to influence the attitudes and behavior of the American public. In
today's media landscape, which has expanded beyond traditional channels
such as newspapers, magazines, radio, and television to the Internet and
interactive video gaming -- the challenge is even more urgent. Although 46
million Americans have stopped smoking, 45 million Americans -- about 20
percent of American adults -- still smoke and nearly 4,000 adolescents
smoke their first cigarette each day. Tobacco use is the single largest
cause of preventable death in the United States. According to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoking is responsible for
more than 400,000 premature deaths per year and reduces the life expectancy
of smokers by an average of 14 years.
The editors of the monograph outline several steps that have been
proposed to reduce use of the media in promoting tobacco use and increase
its use in discouraging tobacco use, including:
-- Impose a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and promotion;
-- Adequately fund mass media campaigns and protect them from tobacco
industry efforts to impede them;
-- Monitor tobacco industry activities including public relations and
advertising expenditures in a changing media environment;
-- Use research to inform tobacco control policy and program decisions;
-- Place anti-tobacco advertisements before films to partially counter
the impact of tobacco portrayals in movies; and
-- Increase public awareness of tobacco industry attempts to shut down
public health campaigns.
"The tobacco industry tried for five years to shut down our successful
truth(R) youth smoking prevention campaign," said Dr. Cheryl Healton,
president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation. Truth(R) has been
credited with 22 percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during its
first two years, from 2000-2002. "Ninety percent of adult smokers began
before the age of 20, so cultivating new smokers is critical to Big
Tobacco's business model, to replace the more than 400,000 adults who die
from tobacco annually with new smokers. Keeping young people from starting
to smoke is a critical part of the equation if we want to make major
strides toward saving lives. Bold, effective counter-marketing campaigns
that reduce smoking rates and change social norms are proven effective in
doing just that," she said.
"This report sends a loud and clear message to policy-makers: We need
less tobacco company marketing and more anti-tobacco advertising," said
William V. Corr, Executive Director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
"It shows why we need strong regulation of tobacco products and their
marketing to prevent tobacco companies from continuing to target our
children. It also should prompt states to fully fund tobacco prevention and
cessation campaigns that are proven to work. And it should spur governments
worldwide to implement the international tobacco control treaty, which
calls on governments to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and
sponsorship and fund effective public education campaigns."
Lindsay Doran, a Hollywood producer, is a vocal advocate within the
entertainment industry for keeping smoking out of films seen by youth.
Former president and COO of United Artists, Doran has overseen numerous
Academy Award and Golden Globe winning films throughout her career
including Ghost, Sense and Sensibility, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Stranger
than Fiction and Nanny McPhee. She has worked for years to educate her
Hollywood colleagues about the dangers of on-screen smoking and feels her
biggest obstacle has been persuading directors, actors, producers and
studio executives that there really is a causal relationship between
on-screen smoking and children starting to smoke. "I'm very glad that the
federal government has thrown its weight behind this important issue," she
said. "Filmmakers are usually very concerned with issues of social
responsibility - that's what many of our best films are about. But they
need more education, especially about the very young age at which most
people start to smoke, and more proof that the smoking in our movies and TV
shows, if presented irresponsibly, can actually be the same as handing a
12-year-old a cigarette. Today's announcement should go a long way towards
providing that proof."
"This new report provides compelling evidence that the tobacco industry
continues to market to our children," said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP,
FACEP (E), executive director of the American Public Health Association.
"It is essential that we protect the health of our nation's youth by
halting promotion aimed at encouraging our kids to take up smoking."
For More Information
For more information or to order this monograph, go to
http://www.cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tcrb/monographs/19/index.htm. To order
a free copy, call the NCI Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER
(1-800-422-6237) and ask for NIH Publication No. 07-6242.
About the NCI Tobacco Control Monograph Series
The National Cancer Institute established the Tobacco Control Monograph
series in 1991to provide ongoing and timely information about emerging
issues in smoking and tobacco prevention and control. Monographs are
available at no cost in print (limited quantities) and online.
The American Legacy Foundation(R) is dedicated to building a world
where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in
Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health
effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations
disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants,
technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and
counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation's
programs include truth(R), a national youth smoking prevention campaign
that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth
smoking; EX(R), an innovative public health program designed to speak to
smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting;
research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to
reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to
priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a
result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached
between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the
tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org.
American Medical Association (AMA)
The American Medical Association (AMA) helps doctors help patients by
uniting physicians nationwide to work on the most important professional,
public health and advocacy issues in medicine. Working together, the AMA's
quarter of a million physician and medical student members are playing an
active role in shaping the future of medicine. For more information on the
AMA, please visit http://www.ama-assn.org.
The American Public Health Association is the oldest and most diverse
organization of public health professionals in the world. The association
aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable,
serious health threats and strives to assure community-based health
promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services
are universally accessible in the United States. APHA represents a broad
array of health professionals and others who care about their own health
and the health of their communities. More information is available at
http://www.apha.org.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Based in Washington, D.C., the
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is a leader in the fight to reduce tobacco
use and its devastating consequences in the United States and around the
world. By changing public attitudes and public policies on tobacco, the
Campaign works to prevent kids from smoking, help smokers quit and protect
everyone from secondhand smoke. Visit http://www.tobaccofreekids.org.
SOURCE American Legacy Foundation
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Related links:
http://www.ama-assn.org
http://www.americanlegacy.org
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org
CONTACT:
NCI press officers, +1-301-496-6641,
ncipressofficers@mail.nih.gov; or Joel London, CDC, Office on
Smoking and Health, +1-770-488-5439, jlondon@cdc.gov; or Julia
Cartwright, The American Legacy Foundation, +1-202-454-5596,
jcartwright@americanlegacy.org; or Lisa Lecas, The American
Medical Association, +1-312-464-5980, lecas@ama-assn.org; or
David Fouse, The American Public Health Association,
+1-202-777-2501, david.fouse@apha.org; or Nicole Dueffert, The
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, +1-202-296-5469,
ndueffert@tobaccofreekids.org
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