SWAT Facts
Students Working Against Tobacco
History of SWAT and t r u t h In 1997, the state of Florida won a $13 billion historic legal settlement with the Tobacco Industry over healthcare costs from tobacco-related illnesses. One of the late Governor Lawton Chiles' ideas was to use a portion of the money for a youth-led anti-tobacco initiative. That very summer, teens from all over the state gathered in Orlando, FL for the first Teen Tobacco Summit. The organizations, Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT), and the t r u t h brand of advertising were born. SWAT is meant to empower youth to mobilize grassroots efforts against the tobacco industry and its youth-targeted advertising machinery. Above all, SWAT understands that the new youth-focused public relations TV campaign from tobacco companies like Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and Brown & Williamson are merely duplicitous attempts at shifting public opinion away from the fact that they are targeting youth and peddling a product known to kill all its consumers in the name of profit. After years of teamwork and empowerment, SWAT has reached its ultimate test. Governor Jeb Bush has cut our budget dramatically reducing our budget to ONE MILLION DOLLARS FOR THE STATE. This has of course came as a shock to the dedicated staff and members of SWAT. In the end, jobs were lost, the youth united, and now SWAT is UNSTOPPABLE. The Message of SWAT SWAT's message is NOT A HEALTH MESSAGE. Instead, it deglamorizes smoking among youth. SWAT operates from the premise that tobacco advertising is pervasive and takes many forms besides normal print ads, including but not limited to shirts, hats, other promotional items, a pack of cigarettes, sports sponsorships, tobacco product placement (both in the convenience store and on television or in the movies), in-store advertising, adults smoking, and youth smoking. Anywhere cigarettes and/or their brand names are prominent, the tobacco industry is advertising to their potential market. SWAT attacks these forms of advertising, making people aware of its manipulative and deceptive nature. SWAT and t r u t h WORK!!! The effectiveness of the youth-led social movement has been unprecedented. The Florida anti-tobacco model has gained nationwide acclaim, and with good reason. According to the ongoing Florida Youth Tobacco Survey, SWAT and the ad campaign t r u t h have directly contributed to an incredible 47% reduction in middle school and 31% reduction in high school teen smoking since its inception, far outpacing the national average. Remarkably, the t r u t h logo has attained a 95% recognition rate among youth around the state, which in marketing terms, rates alongside marketing industry icons such as Nike and McDonalds. Hillsborough SWAT in ACTION!!! Hillsborough SWAT works together with the other 66 counties in Florida to get the message out, the t r u t h. Hillsborough SWAT prides itself on being one of the most influential SWAT movements as well as being known for its high enthusiam, character, and its love for youth empowerment. There are currently over 2,600 members that make up Hillsborough SWAT, all with strong goals in mind. Those are to expose the lies of Big Tobacco, to refuse to be targeted and manipulated by tobacco companies, to change attitudes about tobacco among youth and the community, to increase youth empowerment though community involvement, to reduce the availability of youth access to tobacco products, to reduce youth exposure to second-hand smoke, to change attitudes toward tobacco use among youth in non-traditional settings, and lastly to not replace the over 1,000 people that die each day due to tobacco usage. We know what your doing, we know your manipulative ways, we know how you kill without a guilty conscience, and we know how your products inflict damage on the users as well as the people around them. Big Tobacco... give us your best shot, 'cause we won't give up until everyone else know what your doing to.
WE ARE NOT AGAINST SMOKERS,
WE ARE AGAINST BIG TOBACCO!
