Camels are pack animals, so when Joe Chemo went to school he never learned to think for himself. If you're a teacher, help your students do better. Challenge them to test their Tobacco IQ and get their personalized Smoke-o-Scope. Then ask them to complete one of the activities below:

• Write a paper or discuss in small groups:
  • whether tobacco advertisements are effective
  • whether smokers are rebelling or conforming
  • whether smoking makes people attractive
  • why people over 21 rarely start smoking
  • whether tobacco companies have fooled smokers

• Find a tobacco ad and explain how it tries to influence viewers:
  • by the gender, age, and race of models
  • by the setting or activity shown
  • by what is said or implied
  • by its colors, angles, and other visual elements

• Create an original "subvertisement" campaign to counter cigarette ads by:
  • choosing a targeted audience
  • deciding how to reach your audience
  • crafting the most effective message possible
  • producing copies of the subvertisement
  • displaying the final product in public locations

You might also hold a class discussion after showing one of the following videotapes:

• Making a Killing (2000, 29 min)
• Pack of Lies (1991, 35 min)
• The Truth About Tobacco (2000, 40 min)

For background reading, please see:

• Smokescreen: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-up (1996, by Philip J. Hilts; Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley)

• Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War; the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris (1996, by Richard Kluger; New York: Alfred Knopf)

• Growing Up Tobacco Free: Preventing Nicotine Addiction in Children and Youth (1994, by B.S. Lynch and R.J. Bonnie, Editors; Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences)

• Wise Up to Teens: Insights into Marketing and Advertising to Teens (1995, by Peter Zollo; New York: Strategist Publications)