| Submitted by Carlene Frederick
An "Operation Storefront" was conducted recently in Calhoun County. As part of the 1998 legal tobacco settlement with the states, tobacco companies promised to stop targeting youth with advertising and promotions. But instead of reducing their marketing, they have significantly increased how much they spend on advertising.
"Operation Storefront" is a project to uncover the marketing tactics of cigarette companies and show that it is still a huge, unavoidable presence in our everyday lives.
We would like to thank the stores for their participation and support of our youth during this activity. There were 13 stores surveyed. At each site there was three surveys conducted, recording the number of tobacco advertisements on the outside the store, access to tobacco products inside the store, and inventory of signs and promotions.
A summary of findings from Calhoun County:
Outside Store Survey Findings - Manufacturers signs, Marlboro-9; Camel-2; Winston-1; Kools-2; others such as Basics and Baileys-49; smokeless tobacco-2; non-manufacturer signs-3; anti-smoking signs-13; 21 minimum age notices (e.g. "We Card")
Inside Store Survey Findings - 64% of tobacco products were behind the counter, a great improvement in the past few years; 9% self-serve; 9% locked-up; 18% needed assistance to access. Smokeless products were 50% behind the counter; 40% self-serve and 10% needed assistance to access.
Inventory of Signs and Promotions Findings - 124 cigarette brand name signs; 25 store made signs and 49 other promotional signs. There were 40 items, such as ash trays, lighters, door and counter mats, with smoking and smokeless tobacco messages; 27 anti-smoking signs; 69 brand name tobacco products with anti-tobacco messages; 28 "We Card" or minimum age notices.
Three stores refused entry and two stores requested we not survey. They were not included in the survey.
Two stores had no outside advertisements.
Survey results found tobacco companies are still targeting youth with advertisements by making them visible to everyone and placing promotional products products near items children and youth purchase, such as candy and gum, some candy and gum are products are packaged to resemble tobacco products (candy cigarettes, round tins and pouches.)
"Operation Storefront" is a project sponsored by the National Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. For more information e-mail tobaccofreekids.org or standoutspeakup.org
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