Voice (Indiana)
Voice is the youth led anti-tobacco movement in Indiana. Started in 2001, Voice youth utilize guerilla marketing to fight back against the tobacco industry’s youth-targeted marketing tactics. Voice is represented by youth from across Indiana who strive to educate and prevent young Hoosiers from becoming replacement smokers for the more than 10,000 people who die each year from tobacco use in Indiana.
Motivation Behind Voice
Statistics
Indiana has one of the highest ranking youth smoking rates in the country. Currently, 22.5 percent of Indiana’s youth are regular smokers and 9,800 youth pick up smoking each year. Estimates by Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids state that 160,000 youth in Indiana today will die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses. These stats, along with many others, are part of the driving force behind the Voice mission.
Industry Quotes
In the last few decades, several documents have surfaced from inside the tobacco industry, showing the tobacco industry’s longstanding practice of marketing their products towards youth. Some highlights include:
Activism Highlights
Voice began with a 20 member Youth Advisory Board, ages 15–17, which offered input about likes and dislikes of teenagers in Indiana. This Youth Advisory Board assisted in developing a statewide youth-led tobacco prevention movement beginning with a statewide summit in early 2002. The challenge was to drive down the 39 percent of Indiana’s high school students that smoked. This summit produced some of the initial ideas for youth activism.
Highlights of other events and accomplishments include:
- Yearly Statewide Summits
- Protest of Camel No.9 Cigarettes
- 10,000 Signed Petitions in support of R-rating smoking in movies
- Helping to lower teen-smoking rates in Indiana by 16 percent
- Emily Kile, Voice youth, testifying before Indiana Congress for smoke-free workplaces
- Statewide Voice Road Tour
- Largest youth protest (400 youth) in Indiana history on Monument Circle