From Deseret News archives:
Teens take up signs, march against smoking
They started their march at the Triad Center in downtown Salt Lake City, yelling, "If you quit for a day, you can quit forever," and "we're not going to take it anymore."
Andrea Deming, adult coordinator of the anti-tobacco group Phoenix Alliance, led the protesters.
"We're not against smokers. We're against the industry," she said into a bullhorn.
She advised the protesters to stay positive and let people have their opinions. The signs the teens held urged all to "Lose the Label."
"We want to flip around the false images the tobacco industry displays," said Teen Advocates Against Tobacco officer John Ellis, 17.
He said cigarette advertisements often portray smokers as vibrant, healthy people with exciting lifestyles. The reality is, smokers often have yellow teeth, bad breath and suffer from ill health, he said.
Which 17-year-old Yvonne Clark, president of Phoenix Alliance, agrees with. She said advertisements that show young, sexy women smoking are designed to manipulate teenage girls into smoking. Also, boys may be convinced they will get the sexy girl if they smoke a particular brand of cigarette.
"We don't want our generation to be manipulated to be tomorrow's smokers," she said.
"They target ethnic groups, age groups and music trends."
She showed an ad with cigarettes called "Light & Luscious," which had feminine script. She said a teen girl might look at the ad and think if she smoked those cigarettes, she would be pretty and feminine. The bottom line is convincing teens to smoke.
"The tobacco industry is trying to get replacement smokers," Clark said.
One smoker who was snagged at age of 13 is now-17-year-old Justin Francis. He started stealing cigarettes from his parents and "bummed them from friends." His habit grew from an occasional smoke to a full-blown addiction for two and a half years.
He said he was constantly sneaking away to smoke and hid on the side of his school during lunch to get his nicotine fix. When he noticed he couldn't run far and lost his breath fast, he decided to quit. He said he tried to quit all at once but wasn't successful, so he quit gradually. He hasn't smoked for a while and is now the secretary of Phoenix Alliance.
After marching downtown, the group boarded TRAX, then marched to The Leonardo, where they saw a "Body Worlds" exhibit showing the effects of smoking.
"'Body Worlds' has its own anti-smoking program," said Lisa Davis, spokeswoman for The Leonardo.
Inside is a display of healthy lungs next to lungs that are almost black with various lung diseases attributed to smoking. She said many smokers are moved to quit smoking after viewing the exhibit. The soon-to-be ex-smoker fills out a card on which they take a pledge to quit smoking. She said since the anti-smoking display opened in October, more than 300 people signed the pledge to quit smoking.
E-mail: lwilde@desnews.com
