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Smoke screen: why do tobacco ads look glamorous and sexy--when everyone knows smoking is gross? Here's how to see through the advertising haze.

Article Excerpt
TRUTH IN ADVERTISING

Here is a cigarette advertisement. It makes smoking look cool and fun. But the truth is smoking is really bad for your health.

Myth: Most young people smoke.

Fact: A recent survey of teens done by the U.S. Surgeon General's office found out that only 13 percent of those polled had smoked in the previous 30 days.

Myth: Smoking is sexy and attracts others.

Fact: Kissing a smoker is a bad experience. Smoking causes bad breath, yellow teeth, and wheezing.

Myth: Smoking will not affect my health.

Fact: Just smoking one cigarette can damage your DNA, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. Smoking also causes diseases like lung cancer and emphysema.

Myth: The health warning on cigarette packs is small and simple; smoking can't be that big of a deal.

Fact: There are four different warnings. The Federal Trade Commission requires tobacco companies to rotate them on both their ads and their packs.

Myth: You can smoke while you're young and stop before damaging your health.

Fact: A Chapel Hill Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation study shows that kids who smoked only one cigarette by the fifth grade were nearly twice as likely to be current smokers by age 17.

Flipping through a Vogue magazine one day, Thania Balcorta quickly scanned articles on shoes and hairstyles and barely glanced at the photos of the models. But one page made her pay attention. It was a cigarette advertisement. In it, a group of young people laughed around a pool table. At the center was a skinny model in leather pants. Her face was obscured, but something about the picture made Thania think the girl was beautiful. And the way she held the tip of the pool cue also brought an image to Thania's mind. It looked...