Joe Kelly
Executive Director, Dads and Daughters (www.dadsanddaughters.org) Author, Dads and Daughters: How to Inspire, Understand, and Support Your Daughter When She's Growing Up So Fast (Broadway Books, 2002)

A girl who does not begin smoking before age 21 has virtually no likelihood of becoming a smoker. Hence, tobacco companies have a intense profit incentive to covert young women into smokers.

When girls who smoke are asked why they started, the number one answer is: “To control my weight.” For some people, cigarettes do act as an appetite suppressant, so smoking does sometimes help a girl stay “slim.” Tobacco companies recognize and play on this unhealthy desire every day. Ever notice the names of cigarette brands aimed at females? Virginia Slims, Merit Lights. That’s no coincidence. Tobacco merchants sell our daughters what author Jean Kilbourne calls “slim hopes.” The hope that smoking will make them slim, and the slim hope that it will accomplish that goal and/or not harm them.

Meanwhile, marketers play on teen’s natural tendency toward rebellion against standards – and use modern public health’s negative focus on tobacco to make tobacco more alluring as a forbidden fruit that symbolizes freedom from restrictions. Of course, there is nothing liberating about an addictive substance that sharply shortens a female’s life expectancy through ugly, painful death by cancer and/or emphysema.

Similarly, people who start drinking by age 15 are four times more likely to become addicted to alcohol than those who wait until 21. The government estimates that about  ten percent of American drinkers are alcoholic – thus it’s no surprise that ten percent of drinkers consume over 60 percent of the alcohol sold in this country.  Once again, manufacturers have a huge profit incentive to turn young people into drinkers. With girls, the advertising of alcohol focuses on glamour, sex-appeal, fun and ability to attract males. The most recent trend is marketing of traditional soft drinks – kids’ drinks – with alcohol, like Jack Daniels cola and Mikes Hard lemonade.

However, in real life, alcohol is the most common denominator in rape.

What can someone who cares about girls do about the corrupt marketing to girls?  My national nonprofit, Dads and Daughters, successfully mobilizes individuals to voice their objections to major corporations.  For example, in response to a letter-writing campaign, Campbell’s Soup stop airing a TV commercial that marketed soup to prepubescent girls as a diet aid.  We were part of a national coalition effort that persuaded NBC TV to reverse its decision to start carrying hard liquor ads during prime time.

Looked at in a certain way, the explosion of media outlets works to an activist’s advantage. Competition for consumer and viewer attention is greater than it’s ever been. For example, when I was a kid, NBC had two competitors for TV advertising revenue: CBS and ABC. As we’ve seen, NBC now has more than 500 rivals. To succeed, companies must be agile and respond quickly to what consumers say. If we as consumers don’t speak up, we waste our growing clout.

Each one of those 500 has a big stake in listening closely to what viewers – us – tell them.