Ray, et al. Don't get me wrong. Personally, I have nothing against cigar smoking. I'm an ex-cig smoker and when the family is together, my father, two brothers, two brothers-in-law and me do our best to stink up the yard/garage/links with fancy cigars. My wife won't get near me for a few days afterwards, but aren't there always trade-offs? Thought you CIG people might be interested in the following:
Media blitz aims to snuff out cigar smoking
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Faced with a big jump in youth cigar smoking, California health officials Monday launched the country's first media blitz against one of the strongest hold-outs in the tobacco wars.
"It's not grandpa who's smoking cigars today," Director of Health Services Kim Belshe said at a Sacramento news conference "It's our kids and our up-and-coming adults."
Cigar smoking by young Californians tripled between 1990 and 1996, according to a report issued Monday by the state Department of Health Services. More than one third of teenage boys surveyed in 1996 said they had at least tried a cigar.
The trend undercuts California's squeaky-clean smoke-free image, which has been backed by state laws banning smoking in most bars, casinos, restaurants and offices.
Roughly 34 percent of California males and 17 percent of females aged 16-17 say they had smoked a cigar in 1996. Some of the curious are barely in their teens -- eight percent of boys aged 12-13 have at least tried a cigar, as have three percent of their female counterparts.
California's numbers lead a wider national trend. Cigar consumption overall has doubled in recent years to 4.5 billion in 1996, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The new statewide advertising campaign, funded by taxes on tobacco, is aimed at countering a wave of cigar images in popular culture that have transformed the cigar from 'heinous' to 'hip' over the past few years.
"Cigars have become the rage the very same way that cigarettes did a decade ago -- by marketing," said Sondra Smoley, secretary of the state's Health and Welfare Agency.
Smoley faulted TV shows like "Friends" and "Seinfeld" for showcasing cigars during prime time, while movies have also promoted cigar-smoking heroes.
State health officials are fighting the trend with a new advertising campaign starting Tuesday targeted at teens as well as adults.
The campaign carries a simple message: "Cigars. The Big New Trend in Cancer."
In one TV spot, actor "Chad" sniffs a long stogie before a voice asks him how many cigarettes he'd have to smoke to equal one stogie. By the end of the commercial he's whimpering with 70 cigarettes crammed in his mouth.
A print advertisement, done in 50's retro-style, shows a man holding up a box of cigars -- "Chock full of the same genuine mouth and throat cancer you thought only came in cigarettes."
Officials say California's campaign against cigars will be followed by more negative publicity around the country in coming weeks.
Newer numbers on cigar smoking rates are expected from the Center for Disease Control Thursday, and a study from the National Cancer Institute due for release in two weeks could help to confirm the dangers of cigars, officials say.
Already, one medical study has found that cigar smokers face nearly double the risk of dying from all forms of cancer combined and from various cardiovascular ailments.
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