TAKE A WALK IN OUR SHOES ADVERTISING TOUR A SUCCESS

Take a Walk In Our Shoes Tobacco Advertising Tour successfully completed its four-day run through all five boroughs educating New Yorkers about the way the tobacco industry targets their deadly products to our youth at local grocery stores, bodegas, gas stations and other retail outlets. Local elected officials, youth leaders and community groups toured New York City’s neighborhoods to observe the many storefronts that display tobacco advertising that endangers our youth.

“It doesn’t help that youths have to pass these stores at least twice a day, to and from school,” said Lisa Spitzner, project coordinator at the American Lung Association in New York. “In addition to ads on the exterior walls, there are more within the store. When youths are exposed to extensive tobacco advertising and product displays every time they enter a store that sells cigarettes, it distorts their perceptions regarding the availability of cigarettes and increases the likelihood that they will start smoking.”

The tobacco industry spend over 500 million dollars a year just in New York alone marketing their products which include paying retailers to place ads on store fronts which helps recruit young smokers. According to the Surgeon’s General, 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking in their teens.

“Through skillfully placed advertising, Big Tobacco has made it clear that they want our kids to buy their products, use their products and become lifelong customers, even if that cuts our kids’ lives short,” said Sheelah Feinberg, Director of NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City. “When tobacco is used as directed, it is likely to kill the user. We will not accept this deliberate business practice to tempt our kids to light up and risk their lives.”

We want to thank the American Lung Association for their role in making these events a success.

To read more about the Take A Walk In Our Shoes Tobacco Advertising Tour, click here.