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New work shot by Todd Antony for the Tobacco Free California Project. For decades, the tobacco industry has aggressively targeted California’s diverse minority communities with predatory practices.
Tobacco is immensely destructive in African American/Black communities, causing more deaths than AIDS, accidents, and homicide combined. Tobacco companies’ manipulative tactics have led to African American/Black communities experiencing the greatest burden of tobacco-related mortality of any racial or ethnic group in the United States.
Big Tobacco systematically targets African American/Black communities by plastering neighbourhood stores with deceptive ads, and offering discounts on their products. Studies have found there are up to 10x more tobacco ads in neighbourhoods where people predominantly identify as African American/Black. In some cases giving away free samples to children as young as 9.