How
To
Promote
Health
Equity
With
New
Tobacco
Policies
by Vincent Lu and Youth Policy Leaders SF
It's no secret that tobacco companies are interested in capturing new customers. The thing is, when tobacco catches somebody, it will probably hold on to them for life (which will probably end up being shorter). In this way, tobacco is a little like quicksand.
Take a look at our collection of marketing materials from the tobacco industry.
Tobacco companies use pricing tactics to make sure they don't lose customers in vulnerable communities by lowering their prices with coupons.
Coupons also help engage nonsmokers—typically youth—to buy their products and also incentivize users in vulnerable populations to keep buying them. The e-cigarette ad with the young woman is a good example of the industry's interest in appealing to young people—it even has a fake Surgeon General's warning on it.
Tobacco companies are capturing young users every day. Coupons and discounts are one of several ways big tobacco targets them, especially young people from low-income households and communities of color.
There are a few ways San Francisco can fight back. For example, YPL youth have been working to design a policy that would make tobacco less accessible to the city's most vulnerable people. In this way, many YPL participants are campaigning to protect the neighborhoods they come from.