It’s alarming to learn that, according to the American Heart Association, the tobacco industry spent more than $11.4 billion on advertising in 2001, an increase of 66 percent over a three-year span. This includes the three most heavily advertised brands Marlboro, Camel, and Newport. These brands also happen to be the three most-preferred brands by 86 percent of underage smokers. Why do so many adolescents put their lives and health at risk by smoking or using other tobacco products? Through marketing efforts, flavoring their products, and featuring their products in media available to minors, the tobacco industry targets the youth and poses a dangerous threat.
Without advertising, promoting, or brand imaging, any business would struggle to keep its name alive. This is also true of tobacco companies. The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that within only a few years, the tobacco industry has almost tripled their spending on advertising alone. A huge amount of this money goes specifically to magazine ads. Cigarette brands are repeatedly found advertising in magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Rolling Stone. Both magazines are predominately read by the youth. According to public health and tobacco control advocates, including the American Lung Association, it was discovered that 90 percent of new smokers are under the age of twenty and one-fourth of these new smokers are as young as twelve years old, as told by the AHA. When Camel No.9 advertised in fashion magazines with its pink packaging and name suggestive of Chanel No.5 perfume, it caused a public outrage. In an article in USA Today, Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids expresses, “The public health community has no way to require tobacco companies to remove a product, no matter how dangerous.” Lori Sucharski, a former smoker and breast-cancer survivor, shares that she began smoking regularly at the age of fifteen or sixteen and mainly saw cigarette ads in magazines. Sucharski also clarifies that she, coincidentally, preferred Marlboro, which is one of the most heavily advertised cigarette brands.
Tobacco companies are notorious for using subliminal strategies to target young people. An example of this would be through packaging efforts. In the same USA Today article, David Howard of R.J. Reynolds, the nation’s second largest cigarette producer, says, “Product and packaging innovation has been our focus for a few years.” Recently, Virginia Slims Superslims Lights have been packaged in a lipstick-size pack of twenty cigarettes called purse packs that have been described as a design to clearly appeal to teenage girls. The American Journal of Public Health’s Jane Lewis and Olivia Wackowski claim that Camel Exotic Blends use Middle Eastern–inspired designs, themes, and color to tap into the current new luxury trend and are perceived as being of better quality and taste. Yet how tobacco products are marketed is just a small piece of the puzzle as to why smoking has become a trend amongst young people.
A variety of people are led to believe another cause of this epidemic may be from the array of flavored products the tobacco companies have provided. The main reason flavored cigarettes were created was to cover the harsh feel and flavor of regular cigarettes for new smokers. The American Heart Association estimates that 730,000 of new smokers every year are under the age of eighteen. Authors Lewis and Wackowski from the American Journal of Public Health say that secret documents from tobacco companies reveal that they have identified mildness, smoothness, sweetness, and less harsh-tasting cigarettes as being an important preference for younger customers. According to an article in the American Journal of Public Health, 20 percent of new smokers between the ages of seventeen and nineteen used flavored cigarette brands within the past thirty days and almost 40 percent of smokers in the same age group use specific flavored cigarettes brands Camel Exotic Blends, Kool Smoothes, and Salem Silver Label. In addition, since 1999, eighteen different flavors of Camel Exotic Blends have been introduced, including: berry, lime, coconut, citrus, vanilla, cinnamon, chocolate, mint, toffee, bourbon, and sales increased by 4 percent the same year. Who would buy chocolate-flavored cigarettes? It is hard to believe that a person in their mid thirties would enjoy a cigarette that tasted like chocolate but, it would appeal more to a twelve-year-old with a sweet tooth.
