Youth urge peers not to smoke
11/19/2004 Anna Krejci Green Bay News Chronicle Governor joins the fight Gov. Jim Doyle gave parents good news on Thursday - fewer of their children are smoking. Thirty-eight percent of Wisconsin high school students smoked in 1999 only 21 percent of high school students smoke today, Doyle announced at Bay Port High School in Howard. The numbers come from the 2004 Wisconsin Youth Tobacco Survey which polled 1,443 high school students. According to the survey, 28 percent use any tobacco product and 52 percent have smoked cigarettes. During the presentation, Doyle told students that no one has ever heard of a 25-year-old deciding to take up smoking because adults know it is a bad choice. He said more than 80 percent of smokers begin before they reach 18 years of age. "The fact is, they've (tobacco companies) gotta get you early, and that's what they're trying to do," he said. Doyle's announcement coincided with the launching of two anti-tobacco industry commercials that are the result of the state's partnership with American Legacy Foundation. The foundation has matched the $1 million that Wisconsin has spent on smoking prevention. The backdrops for both Crazyworld ads - part of a campaign Doyle began in Wisconsin in July - are a busy New York city sidewalk opposite an office building of a tobacco company. One ad counters a Virginia Slims slogan, "Get your voice." A female throat cancer survivor speaks into a microphone with the robotic tone of her artificial voice box, saying, "Is [...]