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(Describer) The Teen Kids News logo is on curved screens that form a turning cylinder. Passing around it, title: Top Story.

(female narrator) This report is brought to you by a grant from...

(Describer) In an animation, someone draws a boy with a speech bubble that says “tobacco”, then a Stop sign over three cigarettes, and a girl with a speech bubble saying, “Just not cool.”

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(Describer) Katie:

While TV commercials for cigarettes have been banned for more than 40 years, tobacco companies are still finding ways to advertise products, especially to teens. Joining me are Gustavo Torrez and Magi Linscott. They dedicate time to keeping kids and teens tobacco free. Welcome. Thank you for having us. Yes, thank you. Magi, start with how tobacco companies are advertising since there are no ads on TV. Since they're not allowed on TV, we see them advertising in other ways. Every time you open up a magazine or walk into a convenience store, those messages-- the tobacco advertisements-- are right there, and they're really, really eye catching, especially to youth and teens. Teens are definitely being still marketed to and targeted in different ways. We're just seeing it's a little bit different nowadays. In 2009, President Obama passed the Tobacco Control Act, which put new restrictions on tobacco marketing to minors. So how are they getting around those restrictions? As Magi started to allude to, they're finding new ways to market their product towards young people. There's slick advertisers advertising their products. As Magi was mentioning, when you go into convenience stores, we can't go into a convenience store without seeing these advertisements all over the door at eye level of youth. The product placement-- tobacco being placed right by candy, right by the counter. And then these new emerging products the tobacco industry is rolling out like e-cigarettes and sweetened, flavored cigars. We have e-cigarettes in flavors like gummy bear and cotton candy. Obviously, we know who the tobacco industry's marketing with those products. They spend a lot on advertising to do so. Can you give us an idea how much? Yeah, the tobacco industry spends $8.8 billion a year in marketing their products. That's about $24 million a day and $1 million every single hour. The last 20 years, we've done a lot of really great work. We've been able to reduce youth smoking rates over half. In Connecticut, we still have 13.5% of youth who still smoke, so there's definitely a lot of work we need to do. Yes, there is. You refer to a "replacement smoker." What is that exactly? So this may sound outrageous and crazy, but a tobacco company essentially compared young adults, youth, to replacement smokers. To replace the half a million people who die each year due to tobacco use. And so that's just pretty outrageous, you know, calling a whole generation replacement smokers. And so that's where the "Not a Replacement" campaign kind of came into fruition, and it essentially kind of harnesses the power of the selfie. It kind of gets youth to take their own selfie statements, saying they are not replacement smokers. They're so much more than that. That they're musicians and athletes and dancers and readers. And it really highlights how diverse our generation is. That sounds like a great campaign. What else can teens do to help? The biggest thing is speaking up, having a voice. That's the great part about the work Magi was doing in Florida. She saw an issue and spoke up. She's the one-- with her group-- created this amazing "Not a Replacement" campaign. Any young person can get involved by going to kickbuttsday.org. They can download a selfie statement. They can upload it through social media channels. Taking a stand is one of the first ways that we really want to encourage young people across the nation to really join in. And just to add to that, you know, there are youth who are currently, you know, doing state house rallies and talking to their legislators about tobacco-free issues. Something as simple as going to your school's health club or taking time out of your day to print out a selfie statement. Simply by caring about the issue, youth are doing a lot to make a change. Gustavo, Magi, this is great information. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Studies show that 90% of adult smokers began smoking in their teens or younger. It's so important to be aware of their advertising tactics, so we never start smoking. If you know someone who does, they need to stop. Share this number... They even have a special program just for teens.