Cigarette Advertising
Targeting Children
& Regulations Worldwide
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
JRNL 407 Social Issues & Advertising
Nadine Rueckner
Spring 2015
Introduction
Advertising in general influences everyone in many ways, particularly children imperiled by advertisements and its effects. (Raju & Lonial, 1989) I think it is an important topic to protect the children from advertising, specifically from tobacco advertising, because we all know that smoking is not good for your health, might cause cancer and could lead on to death.
Statement of Purpose
I want to show some examples of tobacco advertising and discuss especially why the industry selected children as a target group with a short history and giving some examples how they targeting children. I also want to share the advertising regulations that were made all over the world to restrict tobacco advertising in the countries particularly to children.
“Influence of cigarette advertising had the strongest and most consistent effect on the initiation of smoking”
(Fischer et al., 1991)
History
Before World War I broke out, the majority of the militaries were smoking pipe. Pipes and cigars were the most popular types of tobacco smoking at this time. It emphasized the image of masculinity in the nineteenth-century. (Johnson & Johnson, 2014) This war initiated that cigarettes got more popular any other type of smoking and soldiers and civilians had the opinion that cigarettes
The authors point out how anti-smoking advertisements do not send a clear message to the students to understand how smoking can impact their health. It seems that the advertisements trick people by sending the wrong message, such as demonstrating that smoking is not as bad as it seems that the more the students see those advertisements, the more propense for the students to smoke. The source is relevant to my hypothesis because it demonstrates that teenagers are unaware of the health consequences that they can get. The author’s goal is for teenagers to understand anti-smoking messages are not explicit and are not demonstrating a clear understanding of the risks that smoking cause. The authors conclude that new advertisements need to be more carefully evaluated for teenagers to recognize that their intentions reflect undesirable outcome in the antismoking advertainments for teenagers to understand smoking and the inevitable result that can be provoked due to smoking.
When companies create a print advertisement, their main goal is to showcase their product so that they can bring in a load of profit. They may lure in certain audiences whether male, female or children, but how might advertisement be different from the past than in the present? The 1950’s was an era that was heavy in pop culture, with jukebox diners, slick back pompadour hair, I Love Lucy episodes, and jazz music (Watson 3). Advertisements were bright and colorful; with catchy phrases that made them appealing to the public eye. This was a very influential time in U.S history (Watson 3). With that being said, cigarette companies at this time lured in many women and children. Cigarette smoking was acceptable and seemed non-harmful.
Tobacco advertisements of sexually objectifying women not only influence men, but they also have an influence on women. However, sometimes it works negatively on women giving women anxiety about their looks. Even after much disapproval advertisements continue to feature thin women in their advertisements, because they believe that thin models sell more than heavier models. It has been proven that merchandise sells better when there is an attractive model on the advertisement. However, it has not been proven whether it must be a thin model. Emma Halliwell and Helga Dittmar say “Parallels are frequently drawn between the decreasing size of the female body ideal and both escalating levels of women's body dissatisfaction and increases in the incidence
Tobacco even played a role in the World Wars. During World War I, citizens were able to send their troops cigarettes. Propaganda was released to get more funds to help send the troops cigarettes and more than £250,000 was raised by the end of the World War I. The propaganda cigarette companies used were on the basis that cigarettes aided a release from the hardships of the war. Post World War II, many deaths occurred based solely on lung cancer; a common result of the usage of tobacco. These deaths initiated a study and found that more tobacco users/smokers had gotten lung cancer as opposed to non-smokers. Then by the late 1900’s many people soon began to get a clear understanding of what tobacco can do, even though it does normally take 10
Although tobacco advertisements are banned, people still consume it. The ban started in 1971 and since then has become even more strict on the sponsoring and promotion of tobacco brand logos. Now, all tobacco ads used, dissuade users from consuming. Advertisements in general can be obnoxious and tiresome, but they are sometimes necessary for the seller to get their point across. Ads are either trying to get money from the consumer or driving to change a person’s mind positively. The main reasoning for the creation of advertisements is to persuade the viewer or audience through the evocation of ethos, pathos, and logos, to have a change of mind about the product. The ads I chose are both similar, but have different goals towards their audience.
Advertisements, they grab your attention and keep it. Of course, they are made for the working class who can spend their money to buy the product however, children can also be targeted by ads. According to the online news company Cracked the average American child watches 16,000 ads every year on TV alone, and in the U.S “children spend $30 billion annually and they directly influence an additional $250 billion in family spending.” The scary part is the advertisement industry is self-regulating and there are barely any restrictions! The Tabaco companies are in a massive industry worldwide and you can find Cigarette ads all around you. If you look closer next time you’re at a gas station or a quick-stop store, you’ll see an ad for cigarettes.
Advertisements are leading teens to have heart disease, asthma, high blood pressure, obesity, cancer and type two diabetes. These advertisements are giving the target audience, children, are having effects on their lives. Advertising is playing a horrible effect on the lives of youth because it is diminishing the health of our children, it can also make children need to have things to have a high social status. Also, the advertisements make children want to use their parent's money to buy what they want that is on television, but all they are doing is paying the people who are creating the advertisements.
Throughout the course of this project finding credible sources was challenging at times. My question going in was “Why are children to appealed to tobacco” conducting research regarding that question I found numerous different answers. One answer I didn’t find surprising at all was that children are more appealed to tobacco due to the different kinds of flavors that are on the market. Swisher cigars are flavored and can smell the scent of the flavor as well. Now when a sixteen or seventeen year old gets ahold of those things they’re going to be more attracted to it due to the flavoring. Another possible answer that I believed was most accurate to my question is that children are exposed to tobacco products through numerous different ways. Celebrities
World War I, 1917-1918 played a big part in men taking up the habit of smoking. Along with their daily food rations, they were given all the cigarette’s they could smoke. In 2005, Anderson Cooper reported on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, that the US military was giving out packs of cigarettes to Iraqis with a phone number they could use to report terrorist activities. (Borio,
When tobacco was first brought to England it became a huge hit and soon there after, it spread to other parts of the world. At first it was only sold as a luxury to affluent city folk but eventually the manufacturing was revolutionized by the Bonsack machine which made it affordable for the general public. Ten years later, the American Tobacco Company was founded by James Buchanan Duke, who promoted cigarettes by using aggressive marketing and advertising techniques. The success of the cigarette was not only attributed to the witty business strategies utilized but also to the fact that young men in urban areas were smoking them and creating a trend. When World War 1 came about, smoking became an even bigger phenomenon. In fact, the military and governments organized a constant supply of cigarettes for the troops. At this point in time cigarette companies like Camel were bringing in tons of revenue. With all this new money, these companies were available to create bigger and better advertisements which resulted in more product consumers. In the early 1900’s this disposition became even more popular. In some parts of the world, up to 80% of the male populations were regular smokers. Smoking became an acceptable part of culture in almost all aspects of life; people did
From the common cold to deadly viruses, there are threats to public health everywhere in the world, whether they are caused naturally, intentionally, or accidentally. Providing strategic direction and support against these threats is a national health organization known as the CDC (or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The CDC is one of the most predominate national health institutes the United States and the world. Its main office is located in Atlanta, Georgia. According to the CDC website, the CDC organization has been dedicated for more than six decades to the sole purpose of “protecting the health of the public and promoting quality of life through control and prevention of injuries,
Can one limit what is advertised? Who is to say whether cigarette advertising is ethical? There have been many bans on tobacco advertising. There is a notion that advertising cigarettes is unethical because society has claimed it to be. Smoking has been one of the biggest parts of advertising for decades. Doctors would promote certain cigarettes. Many believed cigarette smoking to be a way to relieve the stress of a long and stressful day at work. Today, many people view smoking as a form of suicide. It is a well-known fact that many people die from diseases that are caused by smoking. It is unethical to advertise tobacco use because
I'm going to let you know why our children should be protected from advertising trying to target them. Advertising makes a big impression on childrens minds. You shouldn't be trying to make money off of children. Advertising also promotes depression just as well as unhealthy eating habits. Now im going to tell you why advertising makes a big impression on little minds.
Advertising for tobacco is another source that cause teenagers smoke and adults smoke. Recently, tobacco companies have found new ways to promote their products to youth. They support their sporting events, concerts and movie. Many people favor idols or stars smoke in the movies and they seems very cool. And Teenagers are curious about imitation. Smoke containing nicotine acts as a stimulant to the brain. Nicotine in the bloodstream acts to make the smoker feel calm. In fact, nicotine is a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or suspected to cause cancer. What is more, secondhand smoke can be harmful in many ways and it ruins thousands of non-smoking people, children's health. The US Surgeon General and the US Food and Drug Administration are among those who have examined the evidence and concluded that tobacco advertising does increase overall consumption. If we ban adverts on tobacco products, they will gradually lose their appeal, because they won't symbolize anything "cool", "smart" or "amazing". Tobacco products will become ordinary consumption goods and thus the number of young people who take up smoking in order to "be somebody" will decrease.
Every year billions of dollars are made because of the advertisments you encounter on your day to day lives. Advertisements have helped America's economy for decades. They all may have their pros and cons, but not all ads have negative effects on children.