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Since most smokers start using tobacco as teenagers and many try it before their 13th birthday, talking to your kids can make a difference. Communication and open lines of discussion are essential in influencing your kids. Equip them with the skills, motivation, and information they need to make their own positive lifestyle choices.
Draw attention towards the marketing strategies and motivations of the tobacco industry.
Don't focus on the long-term health effects. Research shows that this approach doesn't work. Focus instead on the immediate consequences: addiction, financial costs, bad breath, smelly hair and clothes, yellow teeth and fingers, and increased coughing.
Parents who smoke can reduce the likelihood of their children smoking by simply talking about the dangers of smoking, and the difficulties associated with quitting.
Also, think about the celebrities your child admires. If they smoke, discuss the reality of their addiction and the difficulty of quitting.
Actors are role models whether they like it or not. Studies have shown that young people are influenced by their favourite celebrities, both on and off the big screen. Much of the glamour smoking exudes is related to who is smoking.
Actors rarely discuss the industry pressures to start smoking, for a role or otherwise. Many actors start smoking under the age of 20 and the younger a person begins smoking the more highly addicted they become.
Actors who smoke are in the position to influence their fans and evoke change. Actors are real people who are just as affected by smoking. The reality of smoking is rarely shown. coughing, wrinkles, number of attempts to quit, disease.
Last updated March 2010
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