It’s no surprise that music plays a big role in teenagers’ lives. Big Tobacco knows this and tries to infiltrate it to promote their products. They know that rock stars and rap artists influence youth, and if these big shots are associated with smoking, their fans are likely to follow.
Technically, the Master Settlement Agreement prohibits the tobacco industry from sponsoring artists or hosting music festivals, with some exceptions like the Kool Jazz Tour. The reason for these exception is unknown, and the industry is trying to find loopholes in the agreement. Loopholes like having their concerts at 18 and over venues only. But that doesn’t mean that their promotions are limited to people who are 18 and over; underage youth still get exposed to tobacco sponsorships.
Tobacco sponsorship in both music and sports events have a big impact. Youth who are exposed to tobacco promotions are 9 times as likely to smoke, and over 1/3 of youth smoking is a result of exposure to tobacco promotions. No wonder the industry sinks hundreds of millions of dollars each year into promo events.
SWAT is taking youth culture back with the SOUND CHECK campaign. SOUND CHECK is going to fight back and send a message to Big Tobacco to stop using music to promote their products. The industry sponsors artists and concerts to associate tobacco with indie and hip hop lifestyles. To put an end to this, SOUND CHECK will:
- Let the public know that the association between music and tobacco is not real, and that the industry manufactured the lie to get youth to use tobacco products
- Have big artists denounce the Industry
- Get local artists to support Sound Check
SWAT teens are rocking the SOUND CHECK campaign. They are getting their peers to write messages to hip hop megastars like Kanye and Yung Joc and indie rock bands like Blue October and Spoon to take a stand for themselves and their fans by refusing any more tobacco sponsorships in any way or form. All these messages are going to be sent to the artists’ fan clubs to pressure the artists.
The SOUND CHECK campaign will also get pledges from budding artists in the local community, confirming that they won’t ever get sponsored by the industry or use their future fame to promote tobacco.
Take youth culture back by joining SOUND CHECK.