Tobacco companies spend a massive amount of money marketing their products in stores.
This includes payments to licensed tobacco retailers to put their products in the most visible locations in the store.[1] As a result, New York state residents, including young people 18 and under, are exposed to a substantial amount of tobacco marketing.
- In 2006, tobacco companies spent $12.5 billion nationally on advertising, promotions, and price discounts for wholesalers and retailers.[2] That is more than the amount spent to market junk food, soda and alcohol combined.
- Junk Food and Soda companies spent $4.5 Billion[3]
- Alcohol companies spent $3.13 Billion (2005)[4]
- In New York State, the tobacco industry spends approximately $1.1 million per day to market its products.[5]
- Almost every licensed tobacco retailer displays tobacco product advertising, with an average of 18 ads per store.[6]
- Tobacco companies place most of their advertising where young people shop-- in convenience stores, where 75% of teenagers shop at least once a week.[7]
- The World Health Organization supports a ban on tobacco product displays.[8]
Tobacco industry marketing targets young people 18 and under, who are especially vulnerable to tobacco marketing.
- The U.S. Federal Court of Appeals concluded – beyond any reasonable doubt - that the tobacco industry created highly sophisticated marketing campaigns to get young people to become smokers.[9]
- Young people are almost twice as likely as adults to recall tobacco advertising.[10]
- Tobacco advertising targets the psychological needs of adolescents, such as popularity, peer acceptance and positive self-image.[11]
- Studies show that exposure to cigarette advertising causes nonsmoking adolescents to initiate smoking and to move toward regular smoking.[11]
- Studies show that even brief exposure to tobacco advertising influences adolescents intentions to smoke.[11]
- Young people are more likely to be influenced by cigarette advertising than by peer pressure.[12]
- Tobacco product advertising and display in stores gives youth the impression that tobacco products are easily accessible.[13]
| Tobacco Retailers in Tompkins County | |
|---|---|
| Number of Licensed Tobacco Retailers (2009) | 66 |
| Number of Youth (<18 years old) per Lic. Tob. Retailer (2009) | 236 |
| Number of Lic. Tob. Retailers per 1,000 residents | 0.7 |
| Percent of Lic. Tob. Retailers who sold tobacco to minors (2008) | 2.8% |
2009 data compiled by NY Tobacco Control Program from state and federal resources, available on request .
Tobacco products are readily available to young people 18 and under in communities across New York State, and the number of licensed tobacco retailers in a community or neighborhood affects youth smoking behaviors and access to tobacco products.
Phrased another way: The more licensed tobacco retailers there are, the greater the access for young people, and the more likely they are to obtain and use tobacco products.
- There is one licensed tobacco retailer for every 194 children in NYS.[14]
- In 2008, one-in-twelve New York tobacco retailers was caught selling tobacco products to minors during annual compliance checks.[15]
- Despite record levels of compliance with laws restricting tobacco sales to minors, 1-in-5 high school smokers usually obtain their cigarettes by purchasing them in retail stores.[16]
- Greater concentration of tobacco retailers is associated with illegal cigarette purchases by young people and higher rates of youth smoking prevalence.[17,18]
- Reducing retail tobacco outlet density is a viable policy for preventing youth smoking.[19]
NYS Law governing youth access to the retail sale of tobacco products:
SALE OF CIGARETTES, CIGARS, CHEWING TOBACCO, POWDERED TOBACCO, OR OTHER TOBACCO PRODUCTS, HERBAL CIGARETTES, ROLLING PAPERS OR SMOKING PARAPHERNALIA, TO PERSONS UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE IS PROHIBITED BY LAW.
New York's Youth Access Tobacco Control Law was enacted to help stop the sale of tobacco products, paraphernalia and herbal cigarettes to anyone under 18 years of age. Herbal cigarettes are made primarily of an herb or combination of herbs and are intended to be used in the same manner as tobacco. "Smoking paraphernalia" means any pipe, water pipe, hookah, rolling papers, vaporizer or any other device, equipment or apparatus designed for the inhalation of tobacco.
Click here for the NYSDOH Guide for Tobacco Merchants Web page. Or click here to download selected sections of NYS Public Health Law Article 13-F (PDF, 53K).
Reference citations
1. Feighery, Ribisl, Achabal, et al. “Retail trade incentives: How tobacco industry practices compare with those of other industries.” American Journal of Public Health. 89(10):1564-1566 (1999).
2. U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Cigarette Report for 2006. (2009)
3. U.S. Federal Trade Commission, A Report to Congress: Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities and Self Regulation, (2008)
4. U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 2005 Self Regulation in the Alcohol Industry FTC Report (2008)
5. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Estimated tobacco industry marketing in NYS. http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/reports/settlements/toll.php?StateID=NY
6. Girlando, Loomis, Watson, et al. “Retail Advertising and Promotions for Cigarettes in New York.” RTI report prepared for NYS Department of Health (2007)
7. Feighery et al. The 1999 Annual Report of the Promotion Industry, a PROMO Magazine Special Report.
8. World Health Organization Report on the global tobacco Epidemic 2008: The mpower Package.Geneva: World Health Organization; 2008.
9. Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, The verdict is in: Findings from the United States v. Phillip Morris, Marketing to Youth (2006)
10. International Communications Research. National Telephone Survey of Teens Aged 12 to 17. 2007
11. National Cancer Institute. “The role of media in promoting and reducing tobacco use”. NIH publication no. 07-6242 (2008)
12. Evans, Farkas, Gilpin, et al. “Influence of tobacco marketing and exposure to smokers on adolescent susceptibility to smoking. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 87(19):1538-1545 (1995).
13. Wakefield, Germain, et al. “An experimental study of effects on schoolchildren of exposure to point-of-sale cigarette advertising and pack displays.” Health Education Research Theory and Practice. 21(3):338-347 (2006)
14. New York county-specific licensure, population, and non-compliance data fact sheet.
15. New York State Department of Health. Youth Access Tobacco Enforcement Program Annual Report (2009)
16. New York State Department of Health. Youth Tobacco Survey (2008).
17. Leatherdale, Strath. “Tobacco retailer density surrounding schools and cigarette access behaviors among underage smoking students.” Annals of Behavioral Medicine 33(1):105-111 (2007).
18. Henriksen, Feighery, Schleicher, et al. “Is adolescent smoking related to the density and proximity of tobacco outlets and retail cigarette advertising near schools?” Preventive Medicine 47:210-214 (2008).
19. Novak, Reardon, Raudenbush, et al. “Retail tobacco outlet density and youth cigarette smoking: A propensity modeling approach.” American Journal of Public Health 96(4):670-676 (2006).
20. Budget for U.S. CDC from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2011/assets/health.pdf, accessed 11/17/10. Budget for U.S. EPA from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2011/assets/tables.pdf, accessed 11/17/10.