Know the Score about Tobacco Companies
Who do you think benefits the most from people smoking?
Yeah, you’re right, the Government does get some money from cigarettes through taxes, but they have to fork out loads more money to pay for people who are poorly because of smoking. So who else benefits??? Who rakes in the money from cigarette sales??
That’s right – the Tobacco Companies do!
In 2003, British American Tobacco (BAT) who are the second biggest tobacco company in Britain made profits of £2,781 MILLION! Put it in to context – the biggest amount someone has ever won on the National Lottery is £2 million. This means that BAT’s profits were like winning the biggest ever lottery win more than 100 times, and that’s just in 1 year!
But how do you think the tobacco companies keep making all this money, seen as half of the people who smoke cigarettes die early?
Yep, that’s right – they are targeting young people like YOU! They want YOU to smoke their cigarettes, so YOU can replace all the people who have died because of smoking. And they’re not targeting you because they think you are cool or special – they are targeting you because they are greedy and they want your money, and they need YOU to help them stay in business!
That’s why they make smoking out to be cool, and grown up, like when they sponsored Formula 1 Racing or when they get actors to smoke their cigarettes in popular films, which young people will go and see. But you’re not being grown up and cool if all you’re doing is letting tobacco companies control you, by falling for their tricks and getting hooked on their cigarettes!
If you don’t believe me, this is what R. J. Reynolds (a big Tobacco Company) said about smoking …
“We don’t smoke that s**t, we just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the YOUNG, the poor, the black and the STUPID” (said on First Tuesday on ITV in 1992).
After hearing that, do you want to make tobacco companies even richer by smoking their cigarettes? No, didn’t think so!
