Anytown USA

We hope this page will help you to understand the types of ads kids are seeing throughout our country. If more people become aware of the tactics of the tobacco industry, more children can be protected and lives can be saved.

This picture was taken at a local grocery store not long before it closed. There are 8 ads on the outside of the doors. Inside the store was a Marlboro clock, "Kool" check out dividers, and Camel hand baskets. When C.O.S.T. members met with the owner of this store and asked him why he had allowed so much tobacco advertising, he told them the items were free and saved him lots of money. He said the hand baskets alone would have cost him about $400.00 and they needed to be replaced every several years. When he was asked about the ads on the doors, he said that tobacco reps just kept putting their ads on top of the ads from other companies.

Promotional items like this one at a local WaWa, can be found in lots of stores....even in pharmacies. Many are a lot worse. They have images of the Marlboro Cowboy and Misty.


This store is next to our high school and is a local gathering place for teens. On the door is a sign that reads, "only two students at a time." It's surrounded by tobacco ads. Inside the store on the counter are cigars and cigarettes next to candy.

Secret documents of the tobacco industry tell how they target stores that are near high schools and middle schools. There's proof of it in our town.

If you were to take a ride through our town, you'd see "B Kool" signs everywhere. Hundreds of children passed this one on their way to and from our middle and elementary schools. Thank goodness this sign was finally taken down, but there are countless others. In a neighboring town is one on a deli right across the street from an elementary school.
This B'Kool sign is also seen by kids going to school. In fact, it can be seen from blocks away. The owner has a B'Kool banner draped across the roof of his store, one under the window, and a lighted B'Kool sign in the window. At any one time, you could count more than 15 tobacco ads on the front of this store.
The Marlboro Man has been used to lure kids into smoking since the 1950's. He's very much alive in our town. Here is a double sided ad at a local convenience store.
Throughout our town and neighboring towns, you can find sandwich signs with Marlboro sleeves on them. The tobacco reps change these to coordinate with the season.
Here's a Marlboro banner. They're everywhere.
Tobacco reps put this bigger than life lighted Marlboro Cowboy display in the snack bar area of a local shopping club.Our teacher called the manager of the store and told him it wasn't right that they were helping the tobacco industry to trick kids into thinking smoking is "Kool". When he checked into it, he found the store manager didn't even know it was there...Even though it had been there for months, she had never noticed it.The manager said the tobacco reps don't usually ask permission to put displays like this up. They just do it.


We now have this Cowboy. In April for "Kick Butts Day" we put him on trial. With a gauze bandage over his throat, he testified through a student that he was innocent of luring kids into the deadly addiction of smoking. His defense was weak and he was found guilty! He surely won't be tricking any more children, but unfortunately, there are millions more of him around the world.

The tobacco industry spends about 6 billion dollars a year tricking kids in the US into thinking smoking is "Kool". Much of it is spent on ads like The ones on this page. You can stop them by telling the owners of the stores and gas stations that you don't want them in your town.