“Strong, independent, self-sufficient”: Big tobacco and the Future Farmers of America

Background: Tobacco companies are known to build relationships with diverse organizations. One avenue for reaching rural Americans is through the Future Farmers of America (FFA), a national organization that provides leadership training and agricultural education to students aged 12-21. We explored the relationship between the tobacco industry and the FFA. Methods: We analyzed previously secret internal tobacco industry documents. Results: In the 1ate 1970s tobacco companies realized that smoking was becoming an individual, rather than social, activity. To influence people to make the “personal choice” to smoke, tobacco companies sought to associate their products with rural Americans who were perceived as “strong, independent and self-sufficient”. In 1980 RJ Reynolds (RJR) expanded sponsorship of the FFA to include the youth volunteer program, Building Our American Communities (BOAC) to enhance this association. Supporting FFA and BOAC achieved multiple goals for RJR, including: 1) showing their commitment to rural communities and youth; 2) giving participants a positive view of RJR so they might choose to work for or with the tobacco industry in the future; and 3) keeping RJR in good standing with politicians representing rural agricultural communities. Implications: Americans in rural farming communities help produce tobacco products and are viewed as an influential market sector. Supporting rural organizations provides tobacco companies with the goodwill of thousands of communities across the country, as well as their elected representatives. Though not as readily visible as city-dwellers, rural communities need the attention of tobacco control advocates to help rid them of the scourge of tobacco.