Fighting a Marketing Machine

Approximately 3,000 U.S. kids start smoking every day.

Lisa Poole, a volunteer with the American Lung Association, goes intothird grade classrooms, talking to kids about why they shouldn't smoke.

But she says the kids well understand smoking can make them sick andlead to cancer. Still, in a couple years, many of them will light up.

Poole and others like her are campaigning with talk and videos whilethe tobacco companies use cartoon characters, ads focused on adventure,and merchandise tie-ins, some of them free.

The teens are quick to explain that it's fun to collect the clothingemblazoned with favorite brands, to save coupons for the jacket or hat.

Other tobacco companies have denied Liggett's assertions, saying theydo not market to children.

Poole says she does not understand how tobacco company executives, manyof them parents, can sleep at night.

Listen toau, files

Tobacco has been a linchpin of the state's economy, providing incomefor many a farm family and city tobacco factory worker.

It has also been an income stream for the state's medical community.North Carolina's annual medical bills attributable to smoking is put at$450 million. If related items, such as days missed from work, areincluded as well, the total hits $1.7 billion.