The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be launching an anti-smoking campaign specifically directed at the youth, according to the Washington Post.
On Tuesday, the agency confirmed that it will be launching a campaign that will feature a person who has yellow teeth and wrinkled skin to show smokers the negative effects of cigarette smoking. The $115 million multimedia education campaign will be called "The Real Cost" and is aimed at stopping the youth from smoking and encouraging them to quit the bad habit as well.
Starting February 11, the campaign will run in more than 200 markets throughout the United States and it will continue to air the advertisement for at least a year. Specific channels including MTV will feature the ad and magazines like Teen Vogue will also be carrying the advertisement on print. Various social media sites will also be cooperating in the initiative. "Our kids are the replacement customers for the addicted adult smokers who die or quit each day," said Mitch Zeller, the director of FDA's Center for Tobacco Products.
"And that's why we think it's so important to reach out to them - not to lecture them, not to throw statistics at them - but to reach them in a way that will get them to rethink their relationship with tobacco use." Zeller was also the person in charge in overseeing a previous anti-tobacco campaign entitled "Truth". The FDA has confirmed that nearly 90 percent of adult smokers started using cigarettes by the age of 18 and each day, approximately 700 kids below the age of 18 start smoking.
"While most teens understand the serious health risks associated with tobacco use, they often don't believe the long-term consequences will ever apply to them," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
