Vanguard | May 31, 2011 | 6 comments

Marketing smoking to youth: 'Vanguard' Dispatches from the Field

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In this dispatch from the field, Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel stops in a busy intersection in Jakarta, Indonesia, to point out a billboard featuring skateboarders, though tobacco companies routinely insist they are not deliberately targeting youth with their marketing campaigns.

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"Vanguard" is Current TV's no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.

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  1. groups:
    Current Video,   Vanguard,   Vanguard Weekly Special,   Vanguard Special,   2 more
  2. tags:
    Smoking,  Indonesia,  Christof Putzel,  Health Risks,  3 more
  3. credits:
    VANGUARD Correspondent
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6 comments // Marketing smoking to youth: 'Vanguard' Dispatches from the Field // Video

  • Reagan_Hook
    • +1
      Reagan_Hook  

    • I lived in Indonesia and witnessed this first hand. This report is misleading: every pack of cigs and every cigarette ad, whether billboard or on tv, includes a warning that cigarettes can cause impotence, heart problems, and complications with pregnancy. (this clip conveniently "clips" the warning out of the close-up, but it's visible in the distance shot). Also, skateboarding is not prevalent in Indonesia at all.

      Philip Morris didn't turn Indonesia into a smoking nation, Indonesia has had a culture of smoking since long before slick advertising campaigns. Consider the 2 year old child featured in this report; it wasn't marketing that let him to smoke, he simply copied his parents and they sat idly by.

    • 11 months ago
  • lifeafterthefall
  • JWren
    • +1
      JWren  

    • I am a stage 4 lung cancer survivor, I also am a cancer buddy to other people fighting this awful disease. The manufacturers can lie all they wish. You can criticize till the last day on earth, but the facts are simple. If you don't start smoking before 21 years old, you don't smoke. If you smoke or use other tobacco products, you will become I'll, and it WILL probably kill you.

      Cancer is awful. Smoking killed my mom, my husband, and it almost got me. Anything that can be done to stop the manufacturers should be praised and encouraged.

    • 12 months ago
  • MackDiamond
    • +1
      MackDiamond  

    • But ParkerL, he never mentioned children. He said this was an example of how tobacco companies are marketing to young people, not kids. I do agree that the part about not knowing many adults who skateboard is crap, though.

    • 12 months ago
  • ParkerL
    • -1
      ParkerL  

    • this is idiotic. i know plenty of adults who skateboard, since adult in this context means 18 and above. i dont see how this is "marketting to children" whatsoever. marketting to skateboarders perhaps, but not children. i cant believe how far this site and channel have fallen.

    • 12 months ago
  • Almibry

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