Kick Butts Day 2016  Youth across the country will speak out against tobacco companies today for the 21st annual Kick Butts Day. Kick Butts Day is a national day of activism organized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, during which youth are encouraged to stay tobacco-free. BreatheND is using the event to spread the word about the ways big tobacco recruits youth to use their products.
Despite promising to stop marketing to youth in the 1998 tobacco settlement, tobacco companies continue to find new ways to break that promise. One popular strategy is to promote electronic cigarettes to youth by developing fruit- and candy-flavored products, and it seems to be working.
According to the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 22 percent of high school students report using e-cigarettes in the past month, while just 12 percent are using traditional cigarettes. The alarming increase in e-cigarette use highlights the need to educate youth and the general public about the dangers of e-cigarettes.
A lot of youth aren’t aware that tobacco companies are targeting them with marketing and other tactics. Kick Butts Day is an opportunity to expose those corrupt practices and encourage state’s youth to choose a tobacco-free lifestyle.
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