“If younger adults turn away from smoking, the industry will decline, just as a population which does not give birth will eventually dwindle.” -RJ Reynolds researcher 

Tobacco companies must continuously attract a new generation of tobacco users in order to stay in business.

The industry constantly loses customers because many current smokers quit smoking or die from tobacco-related diseases. As a result, tobacco companies develop massive marketing campaigns to entice youth to smoke and become long-term smokers.

The tobacco industry knows that more than eighty percent of regular smokers started smoking before the age of 18. One way in which tobacco companies seek to entice adolescents to use their products is within the retail environment.

After all, according to the American Journal of Public Health, 75% of teenagers shop at convenient stores at least once a week, and they stay for an average of 16 minutes—twice the average time of adults.

The hottest spot in retail is right behind the cash register. And Big Tobacco snags it almost every time! It’s called the “goalpost” and it’s where every sales representative wants their product displayed.

So how does Big Tobacco get it almost every time?

Quite simply, they require retailers to dedicate that space to cigarette display through highly restrictive merchandizing contracts. These contracts include requirements to prominently display tobacco products in the most visible locations of stores: behind cash registers or near check out lines where all customers, including children, are forced to see them.

Tobacco companies spend billions of dollars for these point-of-sale displays. “Power wall” displays, advertising, and discount promotions are common methods of building brand recognition and loyalty, attracting kids’ attention, and undermining smokers’ motivations to quit.

“Power walls” of tobacco product displays are very effective at generating tobacco brand awareness and image, and conveying popularity and desirability.

A study published in the May 2007 issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, concluded that the more cigarette marketing teens are exposed to in retail stores, the more likely they are to smoke, and that restricting these retail marketing practices would reduce youth smoking.

Specifically, the study found that retail cigarette advertising increased the likelihood that youth would initiate smoking; pricing strategies contributed to increases all along the smoking continuum, from initiation and experimentation to regular smoking; and cigarette promotions increased the likelihood that youth will move from experimentation to regular smoking.

A recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that teens are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette advertising than they are by peer pressure.More than five million children alive today will die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses.

We can do more to protect our kids. Prohibiting the display of tobacco products in our stores is a necessary step to significantly reduce the false impression for youth of the social acceptability and popularity of tobacco use.  Six countries have implemented a ban on the display of tobacco products: Canada, Australia, Iceland, Ireland, Thailand, and Norway.

Early data is showing a decrease in youth smoking rates in Canada and Ireland (also taking into account other tobacco control measures).

If our community continues to take clear steps in a tobacco-free direction, we will reward future generations with better health and stronger lives.

Jennifer Hamilton is the program coordinator for Tobacco Free Cortland.