Over in the Gloves off! It’s time to criminalize tobacco thread there are a couple posters who don’t seem to think that tobacco advertising is very pervasive or persuasive.
and
So what is the straight dope?
Do tobacco companies advertise their products?
If so, how do they do it?
Is this marketing effective?
Is it directed at kids?
Billboards.
Magazines.
Sports event sponsorships.
It’s only pervasive if you read magazines, and can’t help looking at billboards while you drive, and like to watch ESPN.
all advertising should be banned, but until that day, it’s wrong to select certain legal products and tell them they can’t advertise the way other legal products can (all to save the precious children, of course). The more dangerous a product is, the more it SHOULD be advertised–cleans up the gene pool that way. We should also have public service annoucements saying don’t wear your seatbelt.
I think the overt advertising is meant to influence brand choice rather that persuade anyone to start smoking. There has always been a more subtle form of advertising, though, which does seek to associate cigarettes with a “cool” image. For years, actors were paid to smoke in movies, for instance. The brand didn’t matter. The image of James Dean with a heater hanging out of his mouth was gold for the tobacco industry.
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I have to agree though I think this extends beyond tobacco advertisements. No form of advertisement will get me to try something I wasn’t already inclined to try in the first place. No matter how much I loved those Bud Frogs I wasn’t about to start drinking their beer.
Do tobacco companies still pay actors or producers to feature characters that smoke?
Marc
I produced cites in the Nationalize the Tobacco Industry thread, a couple weeks back, to show that tobacco advertising is quite effective in ‘recruiting’ new smokers to the habit, the vast majority of whom are underage. There’s also cites in there about what the tobacco companies are doing now in the way of advertising. Feel free to mine it for the cites.