ALBANY – Today, Community Partnerships for a Tobacco Free New York launched a general awareness campaign to educate New Yorkers about the impact retail tobacco marketing has on youth smoking initiation. The campaign reflects research that in-store tobacco display placement and marketing is two times more likely to influence youths than adults.

In 2006, the tobacco industry spent approximately $1.1 million per day to market its products in New York. A portion of this money is paid to licensed tobacco retailers to put their products in the most visible locations in the store. In New York State, there is one licensed tobacco retailer for every 194 adolescents and almost every licensed tobacco retailer displays interior cigarette advertising, with an average of 18 ads per store.

“The Community Partnership has designed a paid media campaign to educate communities about why we need to work with retailers to keep tobacco products out of view and reduce the number of places that sell tobacco,” said James Mutabiilwa, Tobacco Free Chenango Coordinator at Chenango Health Network. “Children are more likely to be influenced by cigarette advertising than by peer pressure. As parents and loved ones of children it is imperative that we become aware and understand the impact that marketing tobacco products has on our youths. Additionally, we know over 87% of the people in Chenango County who participated in the 2008 Chenango County Community Tobacco Survey recall seeing tobacco advertisements the last time they visited a convenience store, supermarket or gas station.”

One component of the campaign is paid media, designed to increase awareness on the relationship between point-of-sale tobacco marketing and youth smoking initiation, and annual cost to New York taxpayers, both in terms of money spent treating tobacco-related illnesses and in lives lost.