Women of Indiana Senate unite against deceptive cigarette ad campaign

INDIANA STATEHOUSE - Sleek packaging, pretty colors and rosy images reach out to female consumers from pages of a magazine. Their allure is not unusual for businesses seeking to attract customers. But in this case, the image portrayed is a mirage and the purchases could be deadly to any woman who doesn’t read between the lines.

You see, the product advertised is a brand of cigarettes.

From Vogue to Glamour, Cosmopolitan to Elle – just to name a few – their slick approach is deceiving. There’s nothing glamorous about lung cancer, a proven consequence of cigarette smoking.

Women members of the Indiana Senate, like those in the U.S. Congress, have united to condemn this almost predatory marketing practice.

While cigarette companies are subtle in their advertising approach, they have aggressive intentions. Officials report tobacco industry spending is an estimated $239 million annually for marketing in Indiana alone. They need to find replacement smokers, because their most loyal customers are dying every day.

This is especially true in Indiana, which has the second highest adult smoking rate in the country.  Did you know that 9,700 Hoosiers die from tobacco use each year?

        Consider these statistics:

• 25 percent of Hoosier women smoke; of those 4,125 die each year;
• 30 percent of Hoosier high school girls smoke and nine of ten begin before age 19; and
• Indiana spends $778.6 million annually for women with smoking related illness. In addition, Hoosiers pay $13 million in federal taxes each year to cover Indiana’s share of U.S. Social Security Supplementary Income support payments to dependent children who have lost a mother to smoking.

Our Senate colleague, Sen. Beverly Gard, is a survivor of breast cancer. She can tell you about the physical and emotional tolls cancer brings – information you won’t find in the fancy new magazine ads. Today, it might surprise you to know more Hoosier women die from lung cancer than breast cancer.

During this year’s legislative session, all women in the Indiana Senate – Republicans and Democrats alike – supported the Indiana Check-Up plan, including a component that discourages smoking and offers help to those who want to quit.

Now, a bipartisan group of ten women Senators are uniting again, condemning these cigarette advertisements and urging Indiana magazines to reject them.

According to reports, R.J. Reynolds is spending an estimated $25 to $50 million on advertising campaigns to introduce its new women’s version of “Camel No. 9” – sounding more like a perfume than a cigarette. But as everyone knows, smoking cigarettes has the opposite effect of spraying on perfume.

It’s time we told cigarette companies and the magazines catering to them the lives of women across this state and nation can’t be bought. Colorful packaging can’t hide the true darkness of cigarettes.

Signed:

• Sen. Beverly Gard (R-Greenfield)
• Sen. Patricia Miller (R-Indianapolis)
• Sen. Connie Lawson (R-Danville)
• Sen. Vaneta Becker (R-Evansville)
• Sen. Teresa Lubbers (R-Indianapolis)
• Sen. Sue Landske (R-Cedar Lake)
• Sen. Sue Errington (D-Muncie)
• Sen. Jean Breaux (D-Indianapolis)
• Sen. Connie Sipes (D-New Albany)
• Sen. Vi Simpson (D-Elletsville)

Technorati Tags: Health Indiana Senate Opinion Politics Senator Beverly Gard Senator Connie Lawson Senator Connie Sipes Senator Jean Breaux Senator Patricia Miller Senator Sue Errington Senator Sue Landske Senator Teresa Lubbers Senator Vaneta Becker Senator Vi Simpson