Camel cash, the Marlboro Adventure Team, and Virginia Super Slims are all designed to attract youth. The tobacco industry thinks youth are stupid. They manipulate and play with your minds so they can get richer. Increasingly, these dollars are going toward promotional activities that appeal to young people, such as sponsorship of public entertainment, distribution of special items bearing product names, and the issuing of coupons and premiums. Tobacco promotions of televised sporting and entertainment events heavily expose large numbers of youth to pro-smoking messages.
Tobacco companies pay a lot of money to have their products placed in movies.
Early adolescence is a key point at which youth abandon their previously held commitments to abstain from smoking. One reason is that adolescence is a time of upheaval in identify development. In particular, physical, cognitive, and social changes that occur during this period often lead to fluctuations in youth's self-image. As part of this identity formation process, youth question who they really are and investigate the kind of person they would like to become. Youth are heavy users of all forms of media, emphasizing the importance of media in identity formation.