Communities of Color fights tobacco advertisement targeting

2nd June 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Travis Andrews
The Louisiana Weekly Contributing Writer

The tobacco industry continues to target the African-American community, but Communities of Color Network is fighting back.

The program, affiliated with the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living and the state-controlled tobacco programs, is “specially created to help communities with 25 percent or higher percentage of African Americans in those parishes” through the Southern University Ag Center, according to Cassandra Contreras, the Region 1 Coordinator for the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL).

“Historically, communities that the tobacco industry targeted have been heavily African-American,” Contreras said, pointing out that a quick drive through a predominantly African-American neighborhood will include much higher than average heavy barrage of advertising for cigarettes and other tobacco products. “There’s a higher impact in the African-American community in Louisiana.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Despite the overwhelming evidence of the adverse health effects from tobacco use, efforts to prevent the onset or continuance of tobacco use face the pervasive challenge of promotion activity by the tobacco industry,” going on to say, “Many public health and smoking prevention groups are concerned about the tobacco industry’s practice of targeting cultural and ethnic minorities through product development, packaging, pricing, advertising and promotional activities.”

And targeting seems to have a direct impact. According to the CDC, “From the introduction of the ‘Old Joe’ cartoon character in 1988, Camel’s share of the adolescent cigarette market increased dramatically — from less than one percent before 1988, to eight percent in 1989, to more than 13 percent in 1993.”

Communities of Color uses education as its main counterattack to this overwhelming advertising, be­cause the African-American commu­nity suffers more from tobacco-related health problems.

“African Americans make up 32 percent of Louisiana’s population; we have the second largest percentage of African-American smokers in the nation,” according to Com­mu­nities of Color literature. “To­bac­­co-related deaths and diseases affect communities of color almost twice as much as other communities.”

Communities of Color has several initiatives all aimed at the same goal: Raising awareness in the African-American community to the dangers of smoking and the specific targeting of advertising. Some of these initiatives include the Barbershop Initiative and the Tobacco Free Church Initiative, which aim to reduce and finally eliminate smoking in barbershops and churches, respectively.

“They’re working with faith-based communities as well as barbershops and salons in raising awareness in the dangers of smoke and the dangers of second-hand smoke,” said Contreras.

And she said it’s working, to some degree.

“The education piece, doing events and the Smoke Free Church Initiative has really helped raise awareness of what the dangers are and how the African-American community has been specifically targeted,” she said.

One of the most helpful groups in Louisiana, though, she said, has been the youth groups, especially the Communities of Color youth group Counter Pop.

“I’d say the youth movement around that is the most engaged … concerning being targeted as young people,” she said. “Letting people know that this is going on, and people definitely get upset.”

In addition to raising education, Communities of Color would like to see smoking banned in workspaces.

“We’re really are supportive of 100 percent smoke-free indoor spaces. All work places being covered and right now in Louisiana, bars and casinos are not covered,” she said. “Those people are not covered. They are not supported by the law.”

In the end, though, smoking remains a personal decision and prices tend to have the strongest effect nationally.

“[Tobacco tax increases] has shown across the country to have the biggest impact on people quitting smoking,” Contreras said.

This story originally published in the May 30, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.