Local deli takes out a piece of big tobacco; effort to reduce cigarette advertising at stores gains momentum.

(ITHACA, NY) For years, a six-foot wide sign for Camel cigarettes hanging over the checkout counter has greeted shoppers at Jason’s Deli, 301 College Ave., in this city’s Collegetown neighborhood.

No more. On Thursday, July 26, the Camel sign came down, along with the product rack to which the sign was attached. In its place is a newer rack fronted instead by a reminder that tobacco customers will be carded.

“With the talk lately about how advertising from cigarette companies can influence kids to start smoking, I thought it was time to make a change,” said Deli owner, Jason Burnham. “The Camel sign was the whole front of the product rack, and I couldn’t afford to lose my product rack. Then I found out I could get one with a plain front from another supplier, so I made the move. The new one is much better, I feel a lot better about it.”

The local Tobacco Free Tompkins (T-Free) group has been promoting the idea of reducing the size and number of “point of sale” advertising for tobacco products at retail stores. This type of advertising and promotions for cigarettes influences adolescents and teens to both experiment with smoking, and for those who have started, keep on smoking, according to studies cited in T-Free’s ads and literature.

Susie Baldwin, a senior in Communications at Cornell, is a summer intern with Tobacco Free Tompkins, a grant-funded program based at the Tompkins County Health Department. Baldwin has been talking to Collegetown merchants about the impact that tobacco marketing practices have on public health.

“Smoking is the biggest public health problem worldwide,” Baldwin explained. “Over the long term, the only way to really change that is for teens and students to never start. “Tobacco companies know if they get students started they have a long term customer, so they put up a lot of ads and promote special prices at the stores, and sponsor events and parties at bars and fraternities,” said T-Free Intern Susie Baldwin.

The Camel sign at Jason’s Deli came down in large part due to the storeowner’s discussions with T-Free Intern Susie Baldwin. “Susie lives near by and she comes in here regularly,” said Deli owner Jason Burnham. “Lately we’ve talked a lot about the tobacco companies and the way they promote smoking, about how addictive smoking is, and how so much of health care costs and Medicaid are a result of illness caused by smoking.”

With a better understanding of the impact of cigarette marketing on the community, Burnham made the move to less advertising at his store. “As long as it’s legal and people want to buy them I’ll keep selling cigarettes and snuff,” said Burnham. “But I don’t need to be part of pushing someone to start smoking or using snuff.”

From now on, Jason’s Deli will no longer display tobacco advertising that can be seen from outside the store, and will minimize the amount of tobacco advertising inside the store.

A statewide survey in 2005 showed that nearly all — 95 percent — of tobacco retailers in New York State have some interior tobacco advertising, though just over half of small grocery-type stores have cigarette ads displayed outside of the store. According to the survey report, the average number of interior ads displayed is 17 per store.

Tobacco Free Tompkins is a grant-funded tobacco use prevention program based at the Tompkins County Health Department. Their Tobacco Free (T-Free) Zone program, a voluntary measure to keep building entrances smoke free, has been adopted by employers across the county, including by Tompkins County and by the City of Ithaca. The T-Free Zone program also promotes changes such as reduced tobacco advertising at the retail point-of-sale, and policies to not accept funding or promotional ties with tobacco companies.

The Tobacco Free (T-Free) Zone program is the center of a community-wide effort to fight tobacco addiction by keeping the air smoke free, supporting tobacco users who want to quit, and helping teens beat the tobacco trap so they never start using tobacco. For more information, the T-Free web site is www.tompkins-co.org/tobaccofree/.