(upbeat music)
- In some ways each day is just a really long series
of choices.
Some are bound to be great, while others
not so much.
Like that one time your friend convinced you
to stay out way later than you planned
and then in the morning you keep hitting
the snooze button, which made you late to work,
and because you're late, you quickly grab
a fast food breakfast instead of something healthy,
and suddenly you've found yourself in a shame spiral,
texting your ex for no good reason.
Send.
Oh on, unsend.
Unsend.
Any way.
Sometimes those seemingly small decisions
can have some dicey long-term effects.
And why we make those choices in the first place
might not be a coincidence at all.
Like smoking.
By now, we all know that smoking cigarettes
isn't exactly great for our health.
It causes cancer, heart disease, stroke,
lung disease, diabetes,
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
and I could go on, but you've probably heard
about all that before.
But even though we all know this,
each day more than 3200 people under 18
smoke their first cigarette.
And guess what.
Nine out of ten regular adult smokers
say they tried their first cigarette
as a teenager.
So the question is if we know that some choices
will probably have a negative impact on our live,
why do we continue to go down that road in the first place?
And why would the smoking rates in some of our communities
remain higher than others?
Well to help me answer these questions,
I've enlisted the help of my friend, Raymond Braun.
- Thanks Francesca.
Look before we get into this, Francesca and I both
know that we're all responsible
for our own health decisions.
And we know that big tobacco isn't exactly placing
cigarettes directly in your mouth.
- The good news is smoking rates overall are going down.
But the reason young people and especially ones
in low-income communities are at risk
isn't as simple or obvious as you think.
- Hint: it's way more complicated than
because it looks cool or I'm so stressed.
- The truth is people everywhere smoke.
But it's more common in low income communities.
And it isn't because poor people are more likely
to make bad choices,
which is a common and misguided assumption
that we've debunked before.
It's because those of us that live in low income areas
have been set up with a variety
of environmental circumstances
that make it a lot easier to pick up a cigarette.
- Tobacco companies have always been aware
that people in poor areas are vulnerable to smoking.
In fact, if you wanna know something super shady,
big tobacco used to give away free cigarettes
to children in poor neighborhoods in housing projects.
And even proposed distributing them with food stamps
specifically to low income women.
And though they can't be quite that obvious any more,
big tobacco is still working hard
to encourage people to smoke in low income areas.
How do they do it?
- First, big tobacco places ads for cigarettes
at gas stations and bodegas
which are often close to schools in low income communities
where teens can't help but notice them
day in and day out.
And while most people want to believe
they're immune to advertising, in reality...
- Regularly seeing tobacco ads can have an impact
on you even if you aren't actually going out of your way
to read them.
And if you happen to live in a poor neighborhood,
the number of ads you're likely to see
goes way, way up.
And along with it, the aspiration to look or feel
as happy and carefree as the airbrushed models
posing on a yacht.
- If you still don't think these ads have a major impact,
after some state governments attempted to ban
tobacco ads near playgrounds and schools,
which seems like a good idea,
the tobacco industry actually went to the Supreme Court
to fight for their right to keep the advertising
and they won.
I'm guessing they think those ads work.
- But listen, at the end of the day,
we all know we're being marketed to, right?
But what about when the marketing tactics
aren't as cut and dry as the television commercial
or a sign in the shop window.
Without being able to advertise on TV or billboards,
after all their products are essentially proven to kill you,
big tobacco relies on another seemingly innocuous
but highly effective tactic.
Hidden discounting.
- Yup, it might not seem like a big deal,
but big tobacco tries to make their products
as cheap as possible by spending almost
all of their marketing budget on discounting cigarettes
even before they hit the shelves.
In fact they spend 25 million every day on marketing
in the U.S.
80 percent of which goes specifically to discounting.
On top of that, tobacco companies actually manipulate
nicotine levels to keep smokers addicted.
One even biologically engineered their plants
to have twice the normal level of nicotine.
So not only are cigarettes becoming more addictive,
but the discounting makes sure
you'll never be priced out of your addiction.
You shouldn't have.
No, you really shouldn't have.
- So let me get this straight.
You grow up in one of these lower income communities
seeing more tobacco ads
than your friends in other neighborhoods.
You're surrounded by more tobacco retailers
than other neighborhoods.
Get cheaper cigarettes because of the deceptive discounting.
And the nicotine levels are being played with
to keep me coming back for more?
That is messed up.
- Listen, we all have free will to make
whatever choices we want in life.
But when it comes to smoking,
regardless of what community, background, gender
or religion you belong to, it's important to realize
how the tobacco industry very deliberately
sets people up so those choices are a whole lot easier
to make.
- So before you judge someone for smoking,
maybe check the tobacco industry first.
- We'd like to give a special shot out to Raymond Braun
and The Truth campaign for helping out with this episode.
If you're curious about big tobacco's history
of targeting and want to get involved in the movement
to ends smoking, check out thetruth.com.
Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time
right here on Decoded.
- [Both] Bye.
(upbeat music)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét