Can you believe it? R.J. Reynolds, one of America's largest tobacco companies, claims it's helping to prevent youth smoking! What's even more outrageous is that the Miss America State Pageants have teamed up with this tobacco giant to bring R.J. Reynolds' "youth anti-smoking program," into our schools.
Young women who aspire to be Miss America are potential role models for today's youth - what kind of a message does this send to our kids? Please click here to tell the National Association of Miss America State Pageants (NAMASP) to end its partnership with Big Tobacco! Urge them to help reduce youth smoking by working with legitimate youth prevention programs.
R.J. Reynolds is one of the fiercest of the tobacco companies when it comes to targeting our kids. This is the company that brought us Joe Camel and candy-flavored cigarettes and that continues to market its deadly products in magazines popular with kids, such as Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone. Once-secret tobacco industry documents tell us that tobacco company anti-smoking programs, such as R.J. Reynolds' "Right Decisions, Right Now," are just another trick to lure kids in.
These programs are designed to increase youth smoking rates by portraying smoking as an "adult act." R.J. Reynolds tries to claim that they are working to reduce youth smoking, although there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that the "Right Decisions, Right Now" program is effective. R.J. Reynolds is clearly a major cause of the tobacco problem, not a solution.
Click here to tell NAMASP that working with Big Tobacco is no way to keep kids from smoking.
Right now, more than 3 million kids are smokers in the United States and twice that number - 6.4 million - will eventually die from smoking-caused diseases. Reducing the deadly toll of tobacco can't be left in the hands of Big Tobacco.
Thank you for all your support! Please forward this email to your friends and family - we'd love their help too.
Sincerely,
Carter Headrick
Director, Grassroots
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
For more information about this and other important issues please visit www.TobaccoFreeKids.org. |
