Are the Tobacco Industry sponsored prevention programs effective?
There is no peer reviewed evidence of their effectiveness. It is important to understand that tobacco sponsored youth programs started in response to the industry’s concern about its public image and in effort to reduce the threat of legislative regulation, as suggested in a confidential Tobacco Institute presentation, “The Development of Tobacco Industry Strategy”: “The potential positive outcomes of adopting programs of this nature [socially responsible programs] may be … a more sophisticated understanding by government regulators of the needs/behaviors of industry. For example, a program to discourage teens from smoking (an adult decision) might prevent or delay further regulation of the tobacco industry.” Since the release of these programs, there have been many accusations that the tobacco industry has deliberately developed ineffective programs that appear at first glance to be reasonable. There is a clear conflict of interest. Consider the facts. The industry has to replace thos
