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Each year over 47,000 Canadians die from tobacco-related illnesses. The tobacco industry needs teens to replace these smokers to stay in business. So, they spend over 5 billion dollars in advertising to attract youth to smoke. They use many tactics to do this.

The main objective for the tobacco industry is to make smoking a normal part of life, so we start to ignore the fact that cigarettes are addictive and cause cancer.

Have you ever been to a convenience store and seen all the colorful boxes of cigarettes behind the counter? The tobacco industry strategically places these cigarettes so that YOU are constantly bombarded with these visual assaults, and it becomes a part of everyday life.

Love jamming to your favourite music video? Have you ever seen a cigar or cigarette being held by your favourite artist? Why are they there? Well, of course, it’s the tobacco industry! They know that as youth, we listen to the latest music, and by promoting smoking in music videos, we feel that it is acceptable and glamorous.

Brad Pitt. Johnny Depp. Julia Roberts. What do these names have in common? They all smoke in movies! And it’s not only them, many other A-list actors smoke in their movies. What does smoking really say? Smoking is used to make the character appear rebellious, sexy and/or powerful. However, that is not true in real life.

Directly advertising smoking in movies is illegal, however it seems that cigarettes end up on the big screen. Don’t think it’s not on purpose; the tobacco industry pays millions of dollars for product placement. As long as they can get your favourite celebrities smoking in movies, they know they are influencing you.

So don’t you think it’s time to show them that we can think for ourselves? Let them waste their money targeting us, we don’t care because we know better. We know smoking kills. So refuse to be a number, let’s take a stand against tobacco.

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