Tobacco+Advertising

Advertising of a product is crucial to a company as it opens the eyes of a consumer to the particular product. It is also referred to as Brand advertising. Where a Brand is given a "personality" and positioning in the market. For instance - Camel Cigarettes are positioned as the Active/He Man's choice.

Tobacco usually has an icon that people usually know what is being advertised and which company this icon is representing. A classic example is the Marlboro Man who is obviously the icon of Marlboro. Marlboro has used their icon to attract many smokers as they have an icon that is perfectly suited for a target audience (for Marlboro it is men that are over 30).

Tobacco advertising is the reason that the smoking and chewing of tobacco has been increased over the last century. The effects are horrendous to a persons health but the advertising and propaganda of tobacco advertising does not give this information. Over the century of tobacco use growth the tobacco advertising has grown with it. The growth of the usage was firstly from other reasons but the reason that it has been increasing now is from tobacco advertising.

Deaths from Tobacco use per year has been 438,000. Despite this information Tobacco is one of the most heavily marketed products and the least regulated in the States. The biggest cigarette manufacturers spent a total of $13.11 billion, more than $35 million a day to advertise their products in the States.

A study taken in May 2007 issued by the journal Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that retail cigarette marketing increased the chances of youth smoking because cigarette pricing is a strategical way for cigarettes to be more successful. It contributes because the youth would want to experiment and therefore not want to spend too much money but the initial experiment turns into a lifetime habit.

Women have been extensively targeted in tobacco, the ways in which targeted by marketing is the association of social desire, independence, weight control and advertisements usually contain beautiful, not over weight women. This is what women care for and it is clearly targeted in marketing. It is not always fair as some people can not reach these stereotypical women "looks". It is another product that says you will lose weight.

Marlboro has a perfect example of how they hook youth or any person by having the saying of "....come to where the flavour is in Marlboro Country" which is trying to hook more customers. media type="youtube" key="sIQGPzrnutY" width="425" height="350"

Citations:
 * http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=44462
 * http://www.gdcada.org/statistics/tobacco/ad.htm

Image Citations:
 * **[|xroads.virginia.edu/.../ tobaccoads/polimage.htm]**
 * **[|current.com/items/88868854_ playing_with_child...]**
 * **[|thesituationist.wordpress.com/ category/marketing/]**