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Buck Big Tobacco

US Smokeless Tobacco Company is on it's way to a rodeo near you!
Big Tobacco spends BILLIONS of dollars every year in marketing and promotions.  In 2005, the most recent year included in the Federal Trade Commision's reports, the tobacco companies spent a massive $13.4 billion - $36.6 million a day - to market their deadly and addictive products, and that's just in the U.S.! The tobacco companies spent $44.33 on marketing for every man, woman and child in America!

What's Big Tobacco spending all this money on?  Part of it is sponsoring events and promotions across the country.  From Camel No. 9 spa parties to Kool's Jazz Philosophy concert tour, Big Tobacco is constantly looking for ways to advertise their products in a more interactive way.  One of the more outrageous examples is U.S. Smokless Tobacco Company's (UST) sponsorship of professional rodeos, as well as college rodeo scholarship programs.  Activists across the country have been organizing around this issue and speaking out against tobacco sponsorship at rodeos.  Basically, youth and adult activists across the country think it is completely inappropriate for spit tobacco to be advertised at a family friendly event.  Many rodeos, especially in Minnesota, are part of county fairs, and are advertised as fun family events.  And, many rodeos include competitions like Mutton Busting, which is a youth event similar to bull riding, but with a sheep. 

Professional Bull Riding, Inc. continues to accept high-level national sposnorships from UST, and promotes the US Smokeless Tobacco Challenger Tour nationwide. On February 15-18, 2007, PBR hosted the Challenger Tour Championship event in Oklahoma City, offering a prize purse of $1 million.  Lucky them that Oklahoma's SWAT (Students Working Against Tobacco) movement was having its annual youth summit in Oklahoma City that same weekend.  OK SWAT has been organizing events and demonstrations for years to get tobacco out of rodeos, and this opportunity topped them all. You can check out photos and flyers from this demonstration in our activism gallery, and at their website, www.okswat.com, and you can find out more about efforts to get tobacco out of rodeos at www.bucktobacco.org.

What can we do about it?
US Smokeless Tobacco Challenger Tour is coming to Minnesota! That's right the only two PBR events in Minnesota this season are sponsored by US Smokeless Tobacco.  Catalyst wants to take action.  The Challenger Tour will be in Park Rapids, MN, at the Double J Rodeo grounds on July 3-5, 2007, and in Theif River Falls, MN, at the Pennington County Fair on July 13-14, 2007. We can launch a letter writing campaign and organize demonstrations similar to SWAT's efforts in OK, but we need the help of Catalyst members and supporters like you! So, if you are interested, and especially if you also live near Park Rapids or Thief River Falls, contact us at rodeos@bethecatalyst.org.

Tagged:
rodeos big tobacco us buck sponsorship activism