Provided by Clarissa Driban, Home Front Communications, America
“Purse Packs” Depict Smoking as Feminine and Fashionable
A new report sheds light on the most aggressive efforts by the tobacco industry to target women and girls in over a decade and reveals what Big Tobacco doesn’t want consumers to know. The tobacco industry has a long history of developing cigarette brands and marketing campaigns aimed at women and girls, with devastating consequences for women’s health. Recently, Philip Morris gave a makeover to its Virginia Slims brand with its new “purse packs” and R.J. Reynolds launched a new version of its Camel cigarette, called Camel No. 9—packaged in a shiny black box with hot pink and teal borders. These new marketing campaigns depict cigarette smoking as feminine and fashionable to lure a new generation of girls into a lifetime of smoking.
The new marketing campaigns and the long-term impact of smoking on women’s health are detailed in a new report “Deadly in Pink – Big Tobacco Lures Women and Girls”. The report was released today by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and some of the nation’s most prominent health advocates, including the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
With more than 21.5 million women and girls smoking in the United States, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death among women. Cigarette smoking kills more than 170,000 women in the U.S. each year, and while lung cancer death rates are decreasing for men, rates have yet to decline among women. Pending legislation before Congress has the potential, however, to protect women and girls by cracking down on tobacco marketing and sales to kids, prohibiting misleading cigarette descriptions such as “light, “low-tar” and “mild”, and requiring tobacco companies to disclose previously secret information about their products.
For more local (America) and national statistics please visit www.tobaccofreekids.org or for a copy of the report visit: www.tobaccofreekids.org/deadlyinpink
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