Candy-Coated Tobacco

Candy-coated Tobacco

Cherry, sour apple, peach, vanilla, grape, chocolate, mango and bubble gum. Sounds like a sampling from the candy section at your local grocery – some jelly beans, a bag of jolly ranchers, a candy bar? Actually, they are all flavored tobacco products.

 

From chew to cigarettes, little cigars, and roll-your-own tobacco, the tobacco industry says they’re not targeting kids – who are they kidding? They say it themselves in their own documents. From Brown & Williamson (now Reynolds American) in 1972:

"Apples connote goodness and freshness and we see many possibilities for our youth-oriented cigarette with this flavor. It’s a well known fact that teenagers like sweet products. Honey might be considered.”

And a 1979 Lorillard memo:

“[Many] felt that younger chewers would be attracted to products with less tobacco taste. For example it was suggested that we investigate [...] switching study data from the company which produces 'Life Savers.' . . . Another suggestion was to produce and market a chewing tobacco product in which the tobacco would be surrounded by a flavored sugar coating, similar to gum balls.”

What can you do about it?  Expose Big Tobacco!  Hand out candy with tobacco quotes attached, and let people know that Big Tobacco is targeting young people with these candy and fruit flavored products.

Check out examples of palm cards here. Feel free to use these as is, add to them, or create your own. And check out this list of tobacco industry quotes, or visit www.tobaccodocuments.org or www.legacy.library.ucsf.edu to search for your own. 

Have any questions about this event?  Email us at candycoated@bethecatalyst.org.

 

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