EDITORIAL
Rise in teen smoking
blamed on Joe Camel
The surgeon general speaks. Smoking teens ignore her.
Cigarette advertising comes under attack. Again.
It’s become an all-loo-familiar course of action. Some
loading medical authority provides even more evident e
of the undeniable health risks of cigarette smoking, and
when that evidence fails to stop kids from lighting up.
everyone looks around for someone to blame.
And there he is tuxedoed. suave, always smoking
and always smooth loo Camel makes a perfot t scapegoat
bet .hiv he savos this i ountry from has ing to admit the
true reason wh\ igarette smoking among teens stubbornly
tefuses to dot line
kids are stupid l.nd of story
I'ho evidence is in. and even oblivious teen-agers t an t
have missed it. Smoking is a killer and they know it. They
just don't care.
And why don't they care? Some say it's because of of
Joe Camel and his fellow advertising icons who are. the
argument goes, deliberately targeting kids in the hope that
they will start smoking.
tiow do advertisers target these teen-agers? By making
smoking look like fun. (Hell, the Marlboro Man doesn't
even do that. He never looks like he's having any fun.)
But by showing these images of happy, successful peo
ple (and camels) enjoying a smoke, we send the message
that smoking c an be a cool thing to do.
(,'uess what, folks? That's advertising
Crith s of cigarette ads seem to have unrealistic expet
tations about the wav advertising works Sure, advertis
ers do try to "target" one audience or another They choose
images carefully, so as to attract the attention of a pat
tii ulai audience. But it is not an exact science.
Joe Camel, bet auso he is a cartoon character. is usual
ly tin* first tube attai ked. Using a cartoon to sell a prod
ui t is obviously a wav of targeting kids, right':' Well, no.
not nm essarily loo (lamol clearly appeals to adults, too
(la mol is the best selling brand of cigarettes on the mar
ket Many and probably most of the smokers who
buv t amels are adults, who apparently are as impressed
by Joe's smoothness as teen ngers are
1aon it (igarette advertiser's are limited to only "mature"
images, however, teens will still see the ads and react
to them. Many teen-agers slat! smoking in order to look
older If the only people they see smoking in ads are appar
ently successful adults, then advertisers will still attract
teen-agers, even though the ads were technically "tar
geted" at adults only
The solution is not banning advertisements which seem
to be aimed at teen-agers. The solution is effective enforce
ment of laws which restric t smoking to those eighteen
and older The surgeon general s report showed that if a
teen-ager makes it to 20 without smoking, he or she will
probably never smoke;. It’s up to c igarette vendors to make
sure they stop selling tobac co to minors, and up to gov
ernment to come up with a system of penalties that ensure
\ endors obey I lie law
it that doesn't work, then perhaps a total ban on loba<
co ads is in order TheonU way to be curtain that adver
tisements aren't reaching teen-agers is to make sure thes
don 't reat h any one
„, Emerald
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SARAjHVO
19&4
Sakajkvo
1994
OPINION
Norway, beyond an Olympic stage
UJ
Marius Meland
If you ve h«M*n watching the
()|y mpic s mi teles inioii late*
ly you might have asked
yourself Where on earth is tfiis
plai c called None ay ?
As .1 full-blooded Norwegian,
! sei/.e Hus opportunity to toll you
a little hit about my home i oun
try. knowing that tins is probably
the only time you will care After
the ( losing ceremony on Sunday.
most [ample will in all likelihood
go hue k to believing that Norway
is a solid-brass yvall lantern sold
at I red Mover Or something like
that
And frankly y\ <■ don't i are il
you don't kiioyy about us We re
nisi bke l begun Mils m that y\ ay ,
think mg that we've got something
extraordinary that yve don't want
to advertise to the world
I lie only problem is. everyone
i -y\ s ,i!"ini t Jo-,'on and Norway
;,.• ss , although lor different tea
sons I'he last time I called a
lilend hack in Norwuv. he said,
You're in that state Oregano,
aren’t you:’ Say, you wouldn’t
happen to knovs Tonya Hardy
gun, would you?"
As voti ve watched the wintry
television images from Norway,
it must have days tied upon you
that Norway is a cold place Every
time I watch the news about the
severe winter yveather on the East
('oast, I think "Ha! They t all that
a snoyvstorm' In Norway, we d
call it u summer's breeze!"
I remember one New Year's
Ey e 13 years ago that my family
and I spent in a hotel in a small
town c ailed Ktiros in t entral Nor
way Rorus is known to be one of
the coldest places in Norway so
cold, in fact, that the people there
complain about hoys hard it is to
find thermometers ysith a deep
enough negative scale This
December had been partic ulurlv
cold, even by Noryvegian stan
dards. and on Neyy Year's Eve 1
t.ould hardly believe my own
eves as I mad the thermometer
outside m\ hotel window minus
■>H degrees I ahrenheit'
Curious .is to what it would
feel like to exjwrieni e such tns'Z
mg teni|>eroture i ran to the hotel
iloor hut was halted hv .1 liellhoy
He told me that the 1 it\ had
ordered a curlew and added that
ms skin v\ ouitl freeze in less than
•}() sei ends d I went outside
1 was unis XI at the time, and
1 remember how disappointed I
w as that l couldn't go outside
Like most Norwegians. I had
experienced freezing m> eve
lashes so that I could hardlv
blink Hut having my !.*< nil skin
freeze would'*eIteen an entirely
novi'i ii?in »•
If you think such i old temper
atures seem drear v then remem
ber that Norwegian winters aren’t
only frigid they're pit< fi dark as
well When I visit nn grandpar
ents in Trondheim, I will some
times sit and paint in inv uncle's
old lied room, vs hu h f;n es stmight
south Around Christmas time,
I will see the sun roll slowly
above the mountains in the east
around It) m the morning Tour
hours later around two ill the
afternoon. 1 will see it dip down
tietund the same mountain range
j little hit further to the west
And four hours of sunshine is
a luxury compared to what
they've got in the northernmost
part of Norwav four months of
continuous night, with no sign of
the sun whatsoever And they
complain alxmt the rainy winters
in Oregon!
In the summer, however, we
get our reward for living through
those cold, dark winters (iontmrv
to what many people lielieve, it 's
actually reasonably warm in Nor
way in the summer And what's
more the days are so long and
light that many people forget to
sleep As a Norwegian poet once
remarked, there are so many
things you i ould do in a sum
mer’s night that you shouldn't
waste it m your bed At least not
if you're sleeping in it
One summer we had some
American relatives visit us
Maryanne and Bobby Kav were
farmers from Ohio, and thev told
us in the typical immodest way
ot Americans, that they grew "the
best beef in the state." I remem
ber thinking, .is I envisioned i:at
tIt* bursting up from the Ohioan
earth America! It's the land ol
the futund Nowhere else can they
actually grow beef!"
Maryanne and Hobbs Ray
staved with us for about a week,
and bv the time they went bn< k
to their beef fields in Ohio they
were so tired that they i on Id
hardly walk on hoard the air
plane I hes hadn't slept in a
sveek
1 don't see bow you i an stand
it here. Maryanne said as she
stood in our bathroom the hist
day and i minted the hags under
her eyes "How can you sleep
when the sun's shining through
the curtains the whole night
Perhaps it's because we sleep
so mui h m the winter Research
has shown that Norwegians sleep
mui h more than average in the
winter, but cut dramatically
dosvn on their sleep in the sum
mer I guess you could sus that
the Homo Norvegicus is a fuller
miling animal Phis sear, ol
course, our sleeping pattern has
been upset, as vie have had to
wake up tor the Olympics
Now. there's one last thing that
I d like to clear up about Norway
"1 ou might have heard about the
traditional Norwegian i uisine
'ion might have been led to
believe that the Norsvegians eat
rotten fish, sheep's brains and
reinueet s xniney s
W•*11. you're absolutely riKht
Here's .1 sampling of sumo tradi
tional dishes:
l.utefisk dried c od pit kit'd in
a potash lye. often served with
iun on and a mustard sauce
Smnlahovf sheep's brain, con
sidered a delicai y on the west
i oast of Norw ay
Hrunosl literally, "brown
i heese," a Norwegian favorite
made from goat's milk that goes
on every breakfast table
Hnkrfisk. half-fermented trout,
served in a potato tortilla
We invented the skis and
exported them to the rest of the
world Hut something tells me
it'll lh* a w hile lielore Norwegian
cooking becomes standard tare at
the Mai Donald's of the world
Manus Mr land is a columnist
(or tlic Emerald.