Tobacco Free Stores

Just ask your kids. You may not have seen all the tobacco marketing in the stores, but your kids have. It’s right there by the register, where they check out. Studies show that kids are twice as likely as adults to notice and remember retail tobacco advertising. The more tobacco marketing they see, the more likely kids are to smoke.

“Point-of-sale tobacco marketing is a major cause of teen smoking in the United States and should be banned.” – Researchers from the Stanford University Medical School

Tobacco Companies use tobacco marketing as the main channel of communication to reach young and new customers. If you don’t smoke, chances are that you don’t notice tobacco marketing and assume that’s because there isn’t much out there. Well, look again…

This is a typical tobacco “power wall” located behind the checkout counter at stores. It is no accident that it occupies the one space in the store – at the checkout counters – where everyone sees them, no matter what they are buying or how old they are. Tobacco companies invest at these locations by paying retailers to prominently display tobacco products, in-store advertising, price discounts and other in-store promotions. This gives the tobacco companies direct control over these “power walls”, which are large, visually appealing displays of products that are intended to attract the interest of customers, build brand recognition and loyalty, attract kids’ attention, and undermine smokers’ motivations to quit.

Tobacco companies call them replacement smokers; you call them your children.
Download our Tobacco Marketing Fact Sheet to find out more.

• Help people quit smoking
• Discourage kids from starting
• Decrease the social acceptability of tobacco use