Alcohol, tobacco ads target minorities

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Staff: Alex Chis, Paul Colvin, Gerry Foley, Suzanne Forsyth, Malik Hayden Perry, Barbara Putnam, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1991 SCAN d April 9 ratt..:

Do you remember the flick in which man-about-town Claude Rains has fallen for wealthy spinster Bette Davis 'way down in Rio?

The music rises, if I recall, the moment that Claude Rains stuffs two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them both with one giant inhalation, and then hands one of them (oh, so suavely) to his paramour. And then, with a cigarette in one hand and a highball in the other, our hero confesses his love.

Nowadays (I have it on good authority) cigarettes and alcohol are less accepted as accessories to courtship. In fact, cigarette consumption has been declining overall, dropping 11 percent between 1980 and 1988, according to the Department of Agriculture. And trade publications report that consumption of liquor and wine fell 9 percent from 1980 to 1987.

Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Business Manager: MAY MAY GONG 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. • These are expressed in editorials.

The tobacco and alcohol corporations are quite alarmed at the threat to their profits. And so, they're keeping their advertising bureaus busy finding new gimmicks and new areas for sales. The tobacco companies alone spend some $2.5 billion a year on their ad campaigns.

Recently, an ever larger amount of the advertising has been directed at the poorer working-class communities-especially Black neighborhoods. Alcoholism is often widespread in the inner cities, and tobacco sales continue to flourish (44 percent of Black adults smoke).

A study released last month by Oakland, Calif., Supervisor Dan Perata found that 60 percent of the billboards in Oakland's minority neighborhoods advertise alcohol and cigarettes. In contrast, only 11 percent of the billboards on upscale Closing date:

May 27, 1991 ties have found similar results.

Dr. Harold P. Freeman, a Harlem surgeon and president of the American Cancer Society, points out, "The cigarette industry just wants to make money because they know that poor and uneducated people are their main customers. And Black people are disproportionately poor and uneducated."

The result? During the last 30 years, mainly because of smoking, the lung cancer rate has increased four times faster among Blacks than among whites.

At the same time, alcoholism has been identified as the greatest single health threat to Black people and a growing menace to Hispanics, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. A 1987 study found that Black men had a 70 percent higher death rate from cirrhosis of the liver than whites.

Grassroots activists

But people are fighting back. Last year in Philadelphia, for instance, Black activists spearheaded a successful campaign to stop the R.J. Reynolds company from testmarketing its new Uptown brand of cigarettes in their community.

This year's Cinco de Mayo (May 5) parade through San Francisco's Hispanic district had an antismoking theme. Bystanders in the crowd were handed brochures describing the dangers of tobacco.

The parade organizers refused all donations for the event from the tobacco companies (who are generally among the most prominent corporate sponsors of events in the community).

And in Harlem, the Rev. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church has organized a group of parishioners into mobile whitewash brigades. Every Saturday, they use the paint to cover up alcohol and tobacco advertisements on billboards within five blocks of any church, school, or playground.

As a result, one liquor firm withdrew its advertising from the area, and a billboard owner agreed to display less offensive posters. Other local fightback campaigns have had similar small successes.

"Pro-choice" corporations?

A broad national campaign against the tobacco and liquor advertisements has yet to take shape. But the death merchants are clearly worried. After California voters authorized a $29 million dollar campaign to place anti-smoking warnings on biliboards and in television spots, one corporation—Phillip Morrisdecided to strike back.

In a statement that was printed on the editorial pages of Black community newspapers, Phillip Morris charged that the antismoking campaign had surrendered to "racist stereotypes." The proof? The California campaign sought to target African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans—impugning the right of those peoples to freely "choose" whether to smoke or not without having to listen to government health recommendations.

The death merchants have thus "come a long way, baby" from the days of Claude Rains and Bette Davis. Now, they claim, their message is "pro-choice" and "pro-individual liberties."

Furthermore, as if we've haven't gotten the point, Phillip Morris has organized a lavish national tour featuring a copy of the U.S. Bill of Rights. This exhibition will instruct us on the importance of maintaining our "right" to be subjected to tobacco company propaganda without having anything to say about it.

But what about right MANT NOW FOR DOCAT rES...

SMOKE...

A PESK INTO THE DREAMS OF A PHILLDA MORRIS FRECUTIVE.

health and safety? What about our right to protect our children from the tobacco and alcohol profiteers? These rights must be protected as well.

Cigarette and liquor advertising must be banned from our city streets by law. The big corporations, through a compulsory tax on their profits, must be forced to pay for clinics to treat people suffering from the effects of their products.

The corporations must also pay for a thoroughgoing educational campaign so that people, beginning in grade school, will be informed about the dangers of smoking and excessive alcohol use. Only then, can the tobacco and alcohol manufacturers claim the right to talk about our rights.

INTERNATIONAL VIEWPOINT Conference on World Affairs July 31 - Aug. 3 Bentley College Waltham, Mass. (outside Boston)

International guests, orkshops and lecture Tor more information cal. (415) 821-0458

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CTON end women's rights

By Michael Schreiber