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Big Tobacco Advertising

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Marketing options for big tobacco companies fizzled after the original Surgeon General report was published which prohibited the mass advertisement of tobacco in America. The push for smoking cessation for all in the United States has become big business. Long gone are the days of tobacco ads showing young adults enjoying themselves on beaches and at parties smoking cigarettes. Now, electronic cigarettes (E- cigs), nicotine patches and gums, and pharmaceutical cessation aids are being marketed. Tobacco companies continue to fight for the freedom to market and enlist consumers, sighting that smoking is voluntary, and the choice should be made by the consumer not the government.
Teens and Smoking
The Center for Disease Control (CDC), estimates …show more content…

Online campaigns such as theTruth.com have developed modern and creative ways to bring awareness to the hazards of smoking among the teen population. Their funny yet informative commercials are aired on popular national networks such as MTV, BET, Comedy Central and Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim program ("truth - #FinishIT," 2016). The campaign targets their audience on social media outlets as well including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The campaign works to heighten awareness that all tobacco ingestion is harmful to health including flavored cigarettes and hookah smoke. TheTruth.com reports a reduction in rates of teen smokers and attribute their success to strategic marketing to the demographic in their “own element” (media) ("truth - #FinishIT," 2016). Peer and parental influence effect young adult’s decisions on either cessation or continued smoking (Chassin, Presson, & Sherman, 1984, p. 380). Young adults that have fewer friends who smoke lean toward cessation versus teens that have both parents and friends who smoke …show more content…

At this point I have smoked cigarettes for approximately ten years. I have a daughter, husband, and a blossoming career in the nursing field. I know the need to quit smoking is there for all the reasons I stated, but the habit remains. In the past, I have tried nicotine gum and the prescription Chantix in efforts to quit but my addiction remains. I had a brief period of success, lasting five months without a single cigarette, but quickly reverted after knowing that I had the ability to quit. Where is the logic in that? This exercise allowed me to reflect on the how I go to this point, also how I still have the opportunity to avoid further damage to my body. However, smoking dulls my tension and irritability, the comfort I receive from smoking seems to be my biggest fear in quitting. Since this exercise, I have limited my cigarette use, cutting out my second smoke break at work. Small steps are going to contribute to my success in smoking cessation, but I am grateful for the opportunity to write my feelings down and share them with you. I have every motivation to quit smoking and plan on fulfilling this goal. Hopefully, by this time next year I will be a bonafide nonsmoker lecturing and shaking my head at current smokers

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