Tobacco manufacturers have two aims – to constantly find new gullible customers and to keep existing customers smoking so they can make lots of money. They are ruthless in this quest and do not consider the health or welfare of our society when seeking to increase their profits.
Marlboro ads in a supermarket
Advertising Tobacco products is banned in Guernsey and the United Kingdom. So what marketing tricks do the cigarette companies use to entice young people like you to smoke?
The only legal methods for advertising tobacco products are at point of sale (behind the till) or on the cigarette packet itself. Manufacturers use this opportunity to try to glamorise smoking and fool people into buying the product. Each brand is designed to appeal to a target audience. The different forms of tobacco marketing are:
DIFFERENT FORMS OF TOBACCO MARKETING
A girl in photo shoot for Marlboro Classic
• Sponsorship of sport and the arts
• Point-of-sale: promotional material in shops such as branded gantries, clocks, signage, staff clothing and product display
• Merchandising: giving away or discounting low cost items such as T-shirts, baseball hats and keyrings
• Free samples: the distribution of free products
• Loyalty schemes: promotional mail and coupons designed to encourage continued purchase
• Brand stretching: non-tobacco products with tobacco branding such as Marlboro Classic Clothes
• Pack designs to communicate brand image and to add value
• Internet sites: websites promoting tobacco companies, cigarette brands or smoking
• Product placement: paid-for placement of cigarette brands in films or television.
TAKE THE TIME TO THINK
• Labels such as ‘smooth’, ‘ethically produced’, ‘gold’, ‘low tar’, ‘ultra light’ and ‘super-slim’ are used on packets of cigarettes. Are you fooled by their marketing jargon?
• They currently occupy pride of place behind the till in many shops, where children (their potential future customers) can see them regularly. Is it right to display cigarettes at the till as if they were sweets?
• Vending machines are the primary source of cigarettes for nearly one in five young people aged 11 to 15. Are you fooled by their convenience?
• Cigarettes are sold in packets of 10. Are you fooled by their ‘cheapness’?
• Prices are reduced if purchased in large quantities! Are you fooled by their discounting?
• Cigarette packets now bear health warnings (currently covering 30% of the packet) and soon gruesome pictures will appear. But is this enough? Is it not high time to realise that plain packaging with just the brand name in simple text is the way to go?
• Cigarette manufacturers also pay celebrities (also known as product placement) to be smoking their brand – they even encourage non-smokers to pretend they smoke. Magazines, soaps and movies regularly feature images of stars smoking. Even cartoons frequently feature a character who smokes. They know that we are influenced by the smoking habits of our favourite stars. Are you fooled by the stars that have been professionally made-up, styled and air-brushed?
• 007 Daniel Craig refused to smoke in the latest Bond movie Quantum of Solace. In real life Daniel is a non-smoker who is super-fit with an action packed acting job. Could the old-style smoking James Bond really perform the stunts required of 007? Would a wheezy smoker capture the hearts of the ladies?
Through the use of advertising and media the cigarette manufacturer seeks to establish the habit of smoking as normal, perhaps even as good for your health!! They know this isn’t the truth – there is overwhelming scientific evidence that they are selling a deadly and addictive product.
