|
Story and Pix by David Ogot snr. © April 2003
The dense, thick, pall of smoke billowing from the smouldering embers of
the 'underage smoking' debate are so thick and emotional that nobody seems able to see the
real issue. This ‘smokescreen’ is deliberately maintained by the tobacco industry.
In a nutshell this issue can be summed up by the statement - "there are
no ifs or butts - cigarette smoking is bad."
But try telling this to young people who constantly see adults (who are also
their parents) smoking making them wonder ‘why are we being told not to smoke?’ If it is a
poison why are they smoking? Aren’t they afraid of dying?
I grew up during the era of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, John Wayne and
others of their ilk. All had one thing in common. They played macho, tough, hard drinking and
smoking characters, who always clobbered the bad guy, got the girl and rode off into the sunset,
as the credits crawled across the screen to the blare of triumphant music.
It was on this basis that I tried my first cigarette (and alcoholic beverage)
on arrival in form one at the ripe old age of 13 and all that merely to impress girls. Many of
my peers at this time thought the same way namely: only tough guys got girlfriends and tough guys
smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol.
Almost thirty years later I look back at that period of my life and cringe.
That is until I remember that ones teenage years are a time of uncertainty, changes, hormone
fluctuations, mood swings, menstrual periods, breaking voices, facial hair growth. Wanting to be
and wondering whether one is accepted in peer groups. Trying desperately to fit in and bucking
against parental reins.
A poster for a competion currently going on for 'Sportsman' cigarettes. The entry
forms are contained in the cigarette packet.
 |
Nonconformity I remember was the order of the day. Afro hairdos,
bell-bottoms or flared trousers and platform shoes. For those brave enough there was an earring.
But the crown on all this was the conspicuous, ever-present, confidently flicked cigarette.
Almost all my peers who still smoke today started at around the same
time - those that is who have not quit. Many have. Majority who have not are trying (some for
over a decade) to stop.
This too is the age of rebelliousness and experimentation. Trying to be older than you are
are. It is the age of asserting "I-am-not-a-child-any-more."
True one is not a child any more but neither is one an adult. You are
trapped in that never, never land in between - a place whose occupants are called 'teenagers.'
Now we come to the crux of the matter. This hapless group called teenagers
lay the foundation for their adult smoking years and subsequent ill health (from minor ailments
to death) during this period. Teenagers suffer from another major handicap and that is feeling
infallible or invincible. There is something in the make up of youth which makes them feel
indestructible. Could be that during this period they are just coming into their own and
realising the infinite possibilities and options that lie ahead.
All these options of course do not encompass pain, disease and God forbid -
death! These are the kind of events that only happen to old people in the distant future. Too
far ahead to bother with now. As a teenager you are unbwogable.
They therefore do what I usually describe as "investing
heavily and wholeheartedly in the present for a disease-ridden future."
This is because you do not smoke today and get cancer tomorrow. To realise
any of the myriad health problems associated with cigarette smoking one usually has to smoke
over a period of years. For young people this is a Godsend, for they can enjoy the ‘tough guy’,
successful, nimefika (I have arrived)
image now and worry about ill health or death in that dim, distant, far away, hard-to-envisage
future called ‘old age’.
I remember during my early high school years, scraping my face sore as I
‘shaved’ in an attempt to get my beard and moustache to grow quicker. Now that shaving is a tedious
and daily chore...(Beware of what you wish for.)
This then is the age at which most people will experiment and become hooked
on the nicotine contained in cigarettes. Very few people start smoking after their teenage years. This
fact is so well documented, that I get confused when I see British American Tobacco (BAT)
solemnly stating without batting an eyelid that they are campaigning against underage smoking.
How I wonder will they stay in business if the youth stop smoking? All they
will have left then if this scenario occurs is the already smoking adult population. But this
segment alone cannot sustain the tobacco industry as daily they are giving up smoking with
numbers of the remaining group dying as a result of cigarette smoking related illnesses.
Could it be that cigarette manufacturers have inadvertently shot themselves
in the foot? Do not hold your breath.
Joseph Kaguthi National Coordinator, National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug
Abuse (NACADA) explaining exactly what smoking does to the body to reporters in Nakuru last year
|
Tobacco companies are aggressively targeting our children. But they are
getting people like you and me to do their dirty work. An article in the East African Standard
(EAS 19.04.03) newspaper titled "Arts could help stop underage smoking" by
Kenneth Kwama illustrates this point well.
A telling statement in this piece goes 'it is encouraging to note that
besides other strategies, the tobacco manufacturer has been encouraging the use of different art
forms to warn the youths against the dangers of underage smoking.'
Also interviewed for the article was Mr. Benson Abwao, the head of
performing arts at the Ministry of Education. He is quoted thus, "These art forums include
plays, skits, puppetry, verses, songs, dramatize dances and narratives. The main for a for the
campaigns against underage smoking through the arts have been the Kenya Schools and colleges
Drama Festival and the Kenya Music Festival."
Mr Kwama then gushes "but BAT deserves accolades for showing the way
on what good corporate citizenship means. As a business organisation, it is not only selfless
of them to sponsor a category that deny them much needed revenue, to create a conducive
environment for social and psychological growth of our youth, but this is an example of the
much-hyped good business practices."
With one fell stroke attention is shifted from the powerfully addictive and
harmful nature of cigarettes to 'accolades' on what a good job they (BAT) are doing to prevent
youth smoking.
But if you still doggedly peer through the smokescreen with your slit by
now fiercely watering eyes, the truth begins to emerge.
According to a 1999 World Bank paper 'Curbing the epidemic: Governments and
the economics of tobacco Control' a shocking statistic emerges. "Smoking is growing in popularity
on a global basis, fueled by 80,000 - 100,000 young people who become regular (my emphasis)
smokers every day." This means that most become addicted to nicotine either as children or
teenagers.
Does this mean that tobacco companies BAT included intentionally target the
under-18 market?
Litigation in the united States of America led to the release
of millions of pages of internal documents of these companies which were placed
on the Internet. Browsing through these papers reveals thousands of startling
to facts hitherto kept under wraps, which concerning youth smoking can be best
illustrated by the following two examples.
In 'Some Thoughts About New Brands of Cigarettes for the Youth Market' by a
C. Teague Jr. of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, put down on the 2nd of February 1973, this
youth-targeting is brought to the fore:
"A new brand aimed at the young smoker must somehow become the 'in' brand and its promotion
should emphasise togetherness, belonging and group acceptance, while at the same time
emphasising individuality and "doing one's own thing."
Then it proceeds on the premise, "The teens and early twenties are
periods of intense psychological stress, restlessness, and boredom. Many socially awkward
situations are encountered. The minute or two required to stop and light a cigarette, ask for a
light, find an ash tray, and the like provide something to do during periods of awkwardness and
boredom."
Even as far back as the '60s T. Osdene of Phillip Morris wrote about reasons for smoking in
'Why One Smokes, First Draft, 1969.' It was almost like a blueprint for me to use five years
later in form one. Osdene wrote:
"The first cigarette is a noxious experience to the noviate. To account for the fact that
the beginning smoker will tolerate unpleasantness we must invoke a psychology motive. Smoking a
cigarette for a beginner is a symbolic act. I am no longer my mother's child, I'm tough, I am an
adventurer, I'm not square. Whatever the individual intent, the act of smoking remains a
symbolic declaration of personal identity."
Then comes the rider. "As the force from the psychological symbolism
subsides, the pharmacological effect takes over to sustain the habit." In other words by
the time you are thinking about stopping this experimentation and forgetting about cigarettes
altogether you realise you cannot as the extremely addictive nicotine has got you 'hooked'.
Since we have seen that they blatantly target young people, why do the
cigarette manufacturers apparently campaign against youth smoking?
Actually when you consider the answer you have got to hand it to them for
‘doublethink.’ Its actually all a brilliant gimmick. This is marketing strategy at its best. By
campaigning against underage smoking these companies cleverly succeed in marketing to children
simply by positioning the product (cigarettes) as 'adult.'
I cannot put it more succinctly than the Ted Bates advertising agency of
New York who said in part:
"In the young smokers mind, a cigarette falls into the same category with wine, beer,
shaving, wearing a bra (or purposely not wearing one), declaration of independence, and striving
for self - identity."
They went on to state that attempts "to reach young smokers, starters
should be based among others, on the following major parameters:
Present the cigarette as one of the few initiations into the adult world
Present the cigarette as part of the illicit pleasure category of products and activities
In your ads create a situation taken from the day-to-day life of the young smoker but in an
elegant manner have this situation touch on the basic symbols of growing-up, maturity process.
To the best of your ability (considering some legal constraints), relate the cigarette to
pot, wine, beer, sex, etc."
A Report of the Surgeon General (USA) in 1994 on 'Preventing Tobacco Use
Among Young people' leaves no doubt too about the vital need for underage smokers as the basis
for survival of the cigarette companies.
In fact it says "cigarette companies are addicted to underage smoking.
Almost 90 percent of all regular smokers begin at or before age 18, and hardly anybody tries a
cigarette outside of childhood."
Free samples at functions where young people attend in great numbers are another way in which
the tobacco companies lure youngsters with the 'free' samples and then wait for the nicotine
to 'hook' the hapless young person and turn him into an addict who will then have to
buy cigarettes if they are lucky, for life. This them pays back hundreds of thousands of times
for the so called 'free sample.'
It is usually at these functions that boys are with their girlfriends and vice versa and
each is trying to show the other how cool and suave and grown-up they all are. So a
scenario is created whereby even for a young person who had previously resisted all preassures
to smoke suddenly finds himself or herself having free cigarettes thrust at them in front of
the person they want to impress most at this stage in their lives. Literally with their backs
against the wall, nor place to turn or run - they light up. More grist for the tobacco mills.
As they used to say in the westerns "another one bites the dust."
These are the facts, albeit the tip of the cigarette seen through the
billowing, pungent 'smokescreen'. But enough to show that the rest of the cigarette being
dangled in front of our youth does exist.
What this boils down to is the time for clever semantics and obfuscation is
over. It is time to act. The health of our children depends on what we do or don’t do. If we
cannot protect them from cigarettes with all the evidence at hand, what then can we protect them
from?
I smoked for 27 years and was lucky to get off lightly
- with asthma! As a result one lesson which was indelibly seared onto my brain
was "underage or overage - when it comes to cigarettes there are no ifs
or butts - they are bad any age - period!"
A condensed version of this article appeared in BIOSAFETY NEWS in
the June 2003 issue entitled Don't hide behind that smokescreen
David Ogot is a freelance
journalist/producer who has personal experience with alcoholism. He can be reached at
goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com or alternatively at info@goinghomedotcom.org
Back to top
| 