Tobacco Companies are Targeting Children

900 Words2 Pages

Thank you for smoking, it’s what big companies like Marlboro and Camel want to let us know, and keep smoking. Tobacco has been around for thousand of years, but today’s cigarettes contain many harmful and poisonous toxins. Yet, its simple: Tobacco smoking kills, reduces economic productivity, and strengthens poverty. But lets be frank, everyone’s aware of these issues already, everyone’s out to get cigarette companies; however, there’s a bigger problem. What happens when cigarette companies target today’s children? In countries such as Indonesia and others in the Middle East, there are no restrictions on the age one can smoke tobacco. In Indonesia, documentaries show children as young as five smoking cigarettes on a daily basis. There is no argument that Tobacco is bad, but its not going anywhere. But how we do attempt to prevent children from smoking. It prevents development at such an early age and poses numerous health issues. The question is who should be held accountable? And what should be done? There is clearly no way tobacco will never be outlawed but I believe there should be tighter restrictions on age limits throughout the world, and restrictions on the materials that are used in cigarette processing. Who is just letting cigarette companies continue to poison people and cause cancer risk? Throughout my essay I will analyze the affects of cigarette use on the society of the world and the elaborate corruption that keeps cigarette companies in business. While todays major tobacco producers deny that they market to the youth. However, we still see them subliminally targeting children through magazine advertisements, store posters, and Internet ads. In addition, they continue to use product placement strategies in mov... ... middle of paper ... ...rictions, and carry out an antithesis campaign against tobacco advertising. With more adds showing teens the harms of tobacco usage and through education, this use of “counter-adding” could go a long way in terms of preventing more youth from picking up such a bad habit. In addition, I think far more legislation should be aimed towards restricting what is actually being put into cigarettes rather than advertisements, as these toxins and poisons are what responsible for the 430,000+ average deaths each year from smoking. Yet, today is today, and as long as companies like Altria and Reynolds American have the money play Washington they’ll get what they want. Now its just up to everyone else, for the sake of the health of our future, to help push legislation that will help deter the aims of companies that basically distribute cancer to hundreds of thousands each year.

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