By Leslie Baer


Whether you’re a smoker or not, by now you have to be living under a rock to not know about the dangers of tobacco use. However, did you know that the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars on manipulative marketing strategies to get college students addicted to nicotine?

“Tobacco Lies”—part of the Weigel Health Center’s “Wellness Wednesday Series”—to a crowd at Buffalo State College’s Butler Library. Steve Beauchamp of Channel 4, who is also a representative of the American Cancer Society, spoke about the manipulating tactics used by the tobacco industry to get people addicted to cigarettes. This program, as well as all Wellness Wednesdays, are free and open to all students, faculty and staff. Beauchamp’s main topic of discussion was media literacy.

“He spent a lot of time talking about how the tobacco companies are doing what any other company does to sell their product,” said Gina de Peralta Thorne, health educator at the Weigel Health Center.

Beauchamp also showed a slide presentation illustrating the marketing techniques the tobacco companies used in the 1950s claiming that cigarettes are “good for you.”

He also discussed how tobacco companies such as Phillip Morris market their product toward young people. People who become addicted to cigarettes usually do so at a young age, and almost always become smokers for life. This is great for the tobacco companies because they’ve got a guaranteed customer until they die, which will most likely be as a result of smoking.

“Since they do not have the freedom to market to the adolescent population as readily, tobacco companies now push their product on college age students,” said Thorne.

The turnout for this presentation was surprisingly low, mostly because “students do not see the importance of this issue yet,” according to Thorne. “I think come July when our smokers on campus feel the constraint of their smoking habit, it will become more significant.”

A law was recently passed in New York state banning smoking from all public places, including bars.

However, many who attended said the presentation was extremely informative.

“Many people, smokers and non-smokers, do not understand how someone can get addicted and why it’s so difficult to quit. A program like this really answers the important questions,” said Thorne.

To learn more about this presentation and upcoming presentations in the Wellness Wednesday Series, contact Thorne at 878-5330 or e-mail her at deperagp@bscmail.buffalostate.edu.