Tobacco MarketingKelli Jernigan

Each day, about 4,000 kids in the U.S. try their first cigarette, and an additional 1,000 kids under 18 become new daily smokers.

Roughly 1/3 of those people will eventually die prematurely from a smoking-caused disease!

Young people may try smoking out of curiosity, peer pressure, adult (or sibling) modeling, or to look older or more sophisticated.

It can also be an act of rebellion.

Before the new advertising regulations, tobacco companies were marketing directly to a youthful audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Z-oOBnqNs

External Influences on Tobacco use:

• Accessibility/availability of tobacco products

• Socioeconomic status

• Cultural norms and environment

• Media portrayal

• Peer and sibling views with use of tobacco

• School academic achievement

• Involvement in sports and activities

• Parental attitudes, feelings and opinions

•Self esteem and self images

•Perception of tobacco use on one’s behavior and appearance

•Knowledge/beliefs/attitudes

•Level of self-efficacy in not being able to say no.

Internal influences on tobacco use:

Influences that support students not to use tobacco:

•Doing well in school and participating in extra-curricular activities

•Non-smokers among family and peers

Parents help by setting and consistently enforcing realistic rules, talking to their children, talking to the kinds of friends their kids are hanging out with, and generally staying interested in their children’s lives

REVIEW

• List reasons why some kids may experiment with tobacco products.

• List at least 3 external and 3 internal influences on tobacco use.

• List at least 3 influences for students not to use tobacco products.

•How do marketing strategies influence tobacco use for young people?

Since most smokers try their first cigarette before 18, young people are the tobacco industry’s chief source of new customers.

Millions of dollars per day are spent marketing their products because they rely on youth smokers to replace the adults who quit or die!

Despite restrictions on tobacco marketing, children continue to be exposed to the ads and promotions.

Research studies have found that kids are:

• 3 times as sensitive to tobacco ads than adults

• More likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette marketing than by peer pressure

• Account for 1/3 of underage smoking because of ads and promotion

These ads use positive smoking images to portray the attractiveness and enjoyment of smoking. They won’t show anyone dying of lung cancer from cigarettes or tobacco products.

Cigarettes/promotions are often placed with items that are attractive to kids - like near a candy displays or magazines.

Tobacco companies pay a lot of money to have their products front and center so the person checking out will see a “power wall” of products. They want to hook you! It is like fishing.

New attractive products may even seem like accessories.

Cigarettes can no longer be flavored, but smokeless and spitless products are flavored like candy.

Companies know kids can not have these products on campus, so they have made containers to look like cell phones or candy.

Ads also aim at closing the gap between self image and ideal image in society.

Young people are often insecure about themselves and their popularity. Tobacco companies use this to their advantage.

Ads send the message that smoking can help you become attractive, desirable and independent.

Masculine images send messages of macho ruggedness, pressures boys to be “tough”, to make them look cool.

Girls are also targeted, and made to think smoking is a weight management tool.

Ads increase young people’s risks by affecting their perception of pervasiveness, image and function of smoking.

REVIEW

• Describe some marketing strategies used by tobacco companies.

• How might masculine ads effect boys?

• How might ads targeted at women affect them?

GOOD JOB!!!!