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Cigarette Ads In Black Magazines: This Needs To Stop
MARCH 25, 2014
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Article By Dianna Hobbs:: EEW MAGAZINE
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I don’t read Ebony Magazine, not unless there is a cover feature I’m interested in. But when I was standing in
the checkout line of my local Target and noticed Bishop T.D. Jakes on the cover, I picked up a copy.
When I got home, I read his perspective on how to walk in purpose. After that, I flipped through the pages and
noticed something extremely disappointing: a cigarette ad.
On page 62 of the April issue is a piece on Harlem rapper Cam’ron and then, right next to it is a splashy
green page with “Win $100,000” typed across the top in yellow bubble letters, with fireworks in the backdrop.
As I focused in on the colorful advertisement, I saw that it was promoting cigarettes through a money-winning
campaign called “Newport Pleasure Payday.” The models featured on this page—two men and a woman—are
young, smiling, and surrounded by cash.
Readers are also enticed to visit a website, Newport-pleasure.com, so they can enter to win daily. On the
home page of this special promotional site is a button that says, “Don’t let FDA ban menthol cigarettes.”
Curious about where this would lead, I clicked on it and was taken to a page hosted by William R. True, Ph.D.,
Senior Vice President of Research and Development for Lorillard Tobacco Company.
This high paid cigarette pusher presents “scientific” information that says menthol cigarettes don’t pose any
greater risk to smokers than non-menthol cigarettes.
Whatever.
I felt anger (more like righteous indignation) burning within me when I read this and thought about the fact
that African-Americans are being led down a pro-smoking path by the black magazines supposedly published
to inform and educate, as well as entertain people of color.
Why is this still happening?
What can I do about it? I wondered.
If nothing else, I decided I can use my voice to say this is not okay and needs to stop.
Last month, EEW Magazine reminded our readers that smoking causes 80 percent of deaths from lung
cancer among African-Americans—the third-largest killer after heart disease and stroke. For decades, the
tobacco industry has marketed vigorously to our communities.
Ironically, African-American media outlets have been totally excluded from an upcoming extensive campaign
to educate the public about the dangers of smoking and admit that executives knowingly lied about the risks.
Yet, tobacco companies are still running cigarette ads in our magazines.
What gives?
Civil Rights groups are already outraged over the blatant omission of black media from an agreement
reached between the three largest American tobacco companies, the Justice Department and a coalition of
anti-tobacco groups.
This deal mandates that a series of “corrective statements” be published nationwide in over 600 newspapers
and on the big three network TV channels (ABC, CBS, NBC), reports Al Jazeera America.
The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) and the National Newspaper Publishers
Association (NNPA), have filed a legal brief requesting that African-American media be represented.
Such an inclusion should have been a no-brainer from the beginning since tobacco companies have so
aggressively pursued African American consumers and youth for such a long period of time.
“The exploitative relationship between the tobacco industry and African-Americans goes back to the
plantations of colonial America,” reports Al Jazeera.
“More recently, tobacco companies have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising to African-American
audiences and targeted them with menthol cigarettes, which health researchers have found are more
dangerous than others.”
Is it just me, or are you also tired of cigarette companies trolling black media, predominantly black
neighborhoods, and making big and quick bucks at the expense of our community?
It’s disgusting.
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