Our Voice & Actions

Going back to 1998…

Jennifer: “At the time it was Philip Morris USA that established a Youth Smoking Prevention department, we were part of a larger company, and we knew that in order to maintain our license to operate that we really needed to address the youth smoking issue. And, when you also think about the landscape, it was a time where marketing of cigarettes was pretty prevalent, and cigarettes were widely available.”

Dave: “There had been substantial declines until the 90s and then there was a big uptick in youth smoking. One lesson from that is what goes down, can go up and public policy is going to be a big element of seeing what happens.”

Jennifer: “In the late 90s when youth smoking rates reached peak levels, they were at 28.3%. According to the 2022 Monitoring the Future study¹, they're at 2.1%. So, a lot has changed over 25 years, but I think 1998 was a significant shift in the way tobacco was marketed in the United States and in a way that has benefited youth in preventing underage use of tobacco products broadly.”

When youth smoking levels reached historic lows of 2.1%…

Jennifer: “It's one of those things where you say you knew the ceiling was 28.3% right, but I don't think any of us knew where the floor would be. We just knew that we needed to all be committed to bringing those rates down as quickly as we could.”

Dave: “My assumption was always if we could get under 10%, then that was a realistic place to be and that if we could hold it under 10% and, see variation underneath that ceiling, it would be a victory with youth cigarette smoking. I’m not the only one who thought so. If you look at the 2020 Healthy People goals², the baseline when they set those goals was 19.5% for adolescent use and the goal was 16%. We’re at 2%.”

The steps Altria and the industry took to combat underage tobacco use…

Jennifer: “The Master Settlement Agreement set the table for how an appropriate marketing and retailing environment looks. For Altria, this then moved to support for FDA regulation of the industry. While FDA regulation didn't get signed into law until 2009, the efforts around support for that really began in the early 2000s. Again, this brought additional opportunities to make sure that you can responsibly sell tobacco products in the United States, bring potentially reduced-risk products to the marketplace, and make sure that young people aren’t using our products.”

Dave: “One thing I think you should give yourself credit for— and I say this to Philip Morris USA – is that you were proactive. You were leaders in negotiating the Master Settlement Agreement and you signed up for a deal that was ultimately much more restrictive. You were in a leadership role in understanding that things had to change and there had to be rules that everyone followed.”

Jennifer: “Working with our 200,000 plus retailers to make sure that we're responsibly retailing at the point of purchase is one of the most powerful things that we've done because it limits access at retail – the evolution of that work was going from self-service displays to non-self-service displays; from signage all over the retail store to signage most proximate to the cigarette – the tobacco selling area. We’ve also focused on We Card and age validation technology at retail, helping people understand that vapor products are tobacco products and then supporting raising the legal age of purchase from 18 to 21.”

What they’ve learned on the journey…

Jennifer: “One of the lessons that I know I've learned over my time leading this work is you don't need to experience the same challenge twice. You've got to make sure that the entire industry really understands the history of where we've been, where we are and where we're trying to go. So, you really can address the harm associated with tobacco use while also making sure young people aren't using our products.”

Dave: “I think it's really interesting that the evolution of this journey is about understanding the impulse to address the youth issue. It's listening. It's evolving. It's figuring out – given the social and societal construct around cigarettes – where you're allowed to play and where you're not and given those restrictions and, what are the best things you can do? That’s wise and I think it's so important to always have an attitude of learning and revising.”

Jennifer: “What I’ve also learned is that it’s about understanding what stakeholders can do. Even looking inside of our company, it's what are the different levers that we can pull including supporting leading youth-serving organizations that are focused every day on supporting the healthy development of young people. That also says how important it is to leverage the whole organization from your brand managers to your sales leaders to your regulatory affairs organization to government affairs to be able to really support public policy.”

Dave: “You cooperate where you can with civil society and regulation. You can understand that with a holistic environment you can achieve really great things and, we know we can because we did.”

What’s ahead as we continue to get rates closer to zero…

Jennifer: “I don't know if you can go below 2.1%, but the reality is if it's low and declining or low and stable – how do we continue to look at vaping to make sure that we have a similar experience? That’s where I think we have to remain focused today and again all of those stakeholders knowing what is the unique role that we have to play that can contribute to the decline of youth vaping. The FDA today has a lot of tools at their disposal to be able to leverage, but industry also has a role to play”

Dave: “I'm impressed by the mindset and I think that's how you have to think. I hope that's something that continues in the culture of Altria. Whether you're there or whether it's someone else who really gets the holistic point of view, because there's just no way to do it otherwise. You can't be a lone ranger in this work.”

^1. Underage Smoking Rates declined by 93% from a height of 28.3% in 1997 to 2.1% in 2022 as reported by Monitoring the Future.

^2.The 2020 Healthy People goal was a smoking prevalence of 16% and a baseline of 19.5% among middle and high school students based on Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), CDC/NCHHSTP. Healthy People - Healthy People 2020 (cdc.gov)