Students get

chance to tell

off big tobacco

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm Middle School students got a chance to vent their feelings at the tobacco industry Tuesday in the Target Market trailer in the school parking lot.

"Hey big tobacco, you are jerks and very stupid" students said in a videotaped message to be e-mailed to tobacco executives.

The Target Market Document Tour 2001 is a 48-foot semi-truck trailer visiting schools throughout Minnesota.

Previously secret tobacco industry documents are displayed on bulletin boards for students to read.

The exhibit uses tobacco industry ads and documents to educate teens on how the industry geared advertising to youth.

New Ulm Middle School seventh-grade students said they enjoyed the exhibit. Students from St. Paul's Lutheran and New Ulm Area Catholic Schools also came to see Target Market.

"It was a good presentation about how the ads get kids," Chris Koob said.

"It was good because it taught us not to smoke, which is the right thing to do," Meghan Rosenau said.

"It was pretty cool," Renae Fischer said.

"It gave lots of interesting facts about what smoking does to kids," Courtney Jones said.

Two kiosks within the trailer featured video-taped messages from students. The recordings included:

* "I'm tired of kissing your butt and making my breath smell."

* "It's gross and makes me want to throw up."

* "Thanks for killing my father and causing impotence in young men."

* "Thanks for advertising to try to get kids to smoke."

* "Thanks for screwing up my family."

* "Thanks for giving my relatives cancer and killing off my grandparents. How can you people sleep at night? You don't have a soul. I thought murder was a crime."

* "Thanks for destroying our lives. Take your cancer sticks and shove them up your ash."

* "Thanks for giving us $64 billion so we could do this event. You've been targeting us for so long. Now we're going to target you."

* One student just stood in front of the camera and cried.

Other messages on large boards in enlarged type included a tobacco industry executive admitting that the base of the business was the high school student.

"We were targeting kids," a former RJR tobacco executive said. "I said at the time it was unethical and maybe illegal, but I was told it was just company policy."

Patrick Casper of Target Market asked students at the kiosks if they liked cherry and mint-flavored things. He said menthol cigarettes are mint-flavored.

"Tobacco companies will also try to target you with free offers of boom boxes and backpacks," Casper said.

Tobacco settlement documents, revealed that it was a well-known fact that teenagers like sweet-flavored things so honey-flavored cigarettes were considered by the tobacco industry.

Target Market's mission is to expose the deceptive ways the tobacco industry targets teens to become lifelong customers.

Any Minnesotan age 12-17 with an interest in fighting back can become a member of Target Market.

The best place to learn about Target Market is at TMvoice.com, a forum for state teens to communicate about their involvement in the movement.

The exhibit was a teen-generated idea at the Kick Ash Bash last April in St. Cloud.

Big tobacco is footing the bill for Target Market's activities including ads, special events and initiatives. All funding comes from a portion of the endowment established by the Minnesota Legislature from the state's $6.1 billion legal victory over the tobacco industry.