The Ask
STEP ONE: Sign your name
- Use your voice to urge organizations to reject tobacco and vape funding.
STEP TWO: Share the Petition and Facts
- Spread the word about the harmful impacts of Big Tobacco and Vape funding.
The Background
Big Tobacco’s money never comes without strings attached. Their goal has remained transparent for decades: sell products that -- when used as directed -- can addict, harm, and even kill people. Often, their “donations” go to the very populations whose lives are most negatively impacted by tobacco.
Spending billions on advertising, profiting off of addiction, and then sending a check for a fraction of that profit? The height of hypocrisy.
The problem doesn’t end with tobacco, either. The vaping industry has used tactics so similar, they seem torn from Big Tobacco’s playbook: Targeting teens with youth-oriented ads, selling flavored products shown to attract teens to their addictive products, and even going as far as funding an after-school program for underaged kids – and that’s just scraping the surface.
THE GOAL
We’re calling on organizations to reject Big Tobacco and Vape funding, and we need your help. Our goal is to recruit at least 100 groups to join our pact – and the more voices we have, the louder we’ll be.
Add YOUR voice to the fight and sign the Truth Over Money petition. Every signature we get will be a powerful tool in showing these groups the importance and urgency of eliminating Big Tobacco and Vape's influence in our communities.
This isn’t about criticizing or shaming organizations that have accepted the money in the past. It’s about making a commitment to the health and future of our generation.
The Facts
Big Tobacco spent decades targeting vulnerable populations – African Americans, low-income communities, LGBTQ+ people, teens and young adults, members of the U.S. Military, and even those dealing with mental health disorders.
Vaping companies, like Juul, are following in Big Tobacco’s footsteps with tactics like funding a summer program that gave them access to Black children.
- A tobacco executive once said: “We don’t smoke this shit, we just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the Black, and the stupid.”
- Big Tobacco disproportionately targeted the LGBTQ+ community, even using “Pride” in their ads.
- While they were publicly making ads that defended freedom and the right to choose, Big Tobacco was privately referring to their project to target gay and homeless people as "Project SCUM."
- Ultimately, the tobacco and vaping industries do not have our best interest at heart. We have to keep their interests – and their dollars – out of our communities.