Cigarettes: Don't Believe the Hype

Popular culture and the media play powerful roles in young people's lives. Through movies, television, advertisements, and other mediums, children are exposed to a wide range of messages about tobacco use. Tobacco advertising increases young people's risk of smoking by using themes that appeal to them, such as fun times, action, and being popular and attractive. What's usually missing from these messages, however, are the life-threatening risks associated with tobacco use. That's where media education can be an important prevention tool.

Through media education, children learn to view media messages with a critical eye and understand how and why those messages are created.

When children can see that media messages are created to get them to buy a certain product or think a certain way, they become more critical of the messages they see and hear. Research shows that children are less likely to be influenced by media messages if they have developed skills to debate and refute such messages. These skills can help them resist the temptation to become tobacco users.

Activity: Cigarettes -- Don't Believe the Hype

Choose an ad for cigarettes -- it could be in a newspaper or magazine. Discuss the true meaning of the ad with your child using the following questions as a guide:

• How is the sponsor trying to get you to buy or want the cigarettes? By making you feel that people will like you more if you smoke their cigarettes? By making you feel that buying the cigarettes will bring you adventure, fun times, romance, money, and success?
• Do you think that having or not having the cigarettes will make a difference in your life?
• Do you know anything about the product that the advertisement is not telling you? (Use this question to open up a discussion about the health dangers and other risks of tobacco.)

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics Division of Public Education

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