tobacco ads essay

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What do tobacco advertising restrictions look like today?

Tobacco Industry Marketing

Tobacco companies used to advertise on television and radio, feature doctors to endorse products and use cartoon mascots, to name a few marketing strategies we no longer see today. Following the release of the Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health in 1964, pressure slowly grew to limit how and where Big Tobacco could advertise.

While tobacco TV ads and physician-recommended cigarettes are a thing of the past, marketing restrictions may not be as far-reaching as you think. Here’s a brief look at some events that shaped the tobacco marketing environment we see today:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) determines that the Fairness Doctrine , a now defunct policy that required broadcasters to present contrasting views on matters of public interest, applies to cigarette ads. For several years, anti-tobacco ads and public service announcements ran alongside ads from Big Tobacco, albeit much less frequently.
A ban on cigarette advertisements on TV and radio (specifically those stations broadcasting on FCC-regulated airwaves) went into effect in 1971. Since tobacco ads were no longer on the airwaves, there was no longer an obligation to air anti-tobacco advertising and those ads went off the air, too. Advertisements for smokeless tobacco products on TV and radio, however, were not banned until 1986 . Ads continued to run in magazines and newspapers as well as on billboards and on transit.
The Master Settlement Agreement , which was the result of civil litigation brought by 46 U.S. states, D.C. and five territories against the major U.S. tobacco companies, imposed more restrictions on those companies. (The other four states settled separately.) New rules included bans on transit and billboard advertisements, paid brand product placement, cartoons, tobacco brand sponsorships of sporting events and concerts, as well as advertising and marketing practices that targeted individuals under 18.
The U.S. v. Philip Morris et al federal court decision concluded that the major U.S. cigarette companies had violated the federal racketeering laws, in part by fraudulently claiming that “low tar” and “light” cigarettes were less harmful when, in fact, the tobacco companies knew they were not. The courts prohibited the use of these and similar descriptors in cigarette packaging and advertising.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act , which granted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products, included the authority to regulate some of the industry’s marketing practices. The act banned the use of vending machines and product sampling (except in adult-only facilities), and it restricted the sale of tobacco in retail establishments to face-to-face transactions between retailers and consumers. It also expanded the existing limits on tobacco brand sponsorships and tobacco branding of non-tobacco items.

Most of the action has been on the federal level. Certain localities and states ban the sale of flavored tobacco products (the Tobacco Control Act banned flavored cigarettes except for menthol cigarettes) and have prohibited coupons and discounts. Recent trends at the state and local level have focused on restricting the sale of tobacco products (an area where states and localities have more direct control) instead of advertising practices to avoid running into First Amendment challenges.

There are still numerous advertising avenues for tobacco companies that have fewer limitations, including marketing in point-of-sale locations like convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies . The top tobacco companies spent 96 percent of their $8.49 billion cigarette marketing budget on point-of-sale marketing—not just advertisements, but things like discounts and product displays behind check-out counters.

Another big marketing venue for Big Tobacco is product packaging—the industry still has wide leeway in promoting their brands directly on cigarettes and other tobacco product packaging. Graphic warning labels in many countries reduce the branding on the pack itself (while also providing invaluable information about the deadly effects of tobacco) but the U.S. has lagged behind in implementing such warnings. The specific graphic warning labels introduced by the FDA under the Tobacco Control Act were found to be unconstitutional, but the underlying requirement was not. A pending lawsuit from Truth Initiative® and seven other public health groups is seeking to compel the FDA to issue a second set of graphic warnings for packs and advertising.

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Smoking Advertising Essay Example

One main goal in promoting a company is always to make sure that consumers are aware of their product or service and its value so that it will appear embellished. Tobacco companies show images of what life would be like if you smoke in a “positive” way. This persuades consumers to purchase their product and then use it. Advertisements glamorize tobacco usage to successfully capture their brand; however, this perception is the complete opposite of how cigarettes truly affect human life. In this anti-smoking, commercialized public service announcement (PSA), there is a deceptive presentation about cigarettes to viewers. This deception must be undone for humans to understand tobacco products habitual bringing up peer pressure, misconceptualized marketing, and potentially terminal respiratory issues.

Daily life includes a multitude of experiences that allow for peer pressure to prevail. Whether it is in the classroom, at soccer practice, or public function, one is constantly being surrounded and influenced by their peers. Peer pressure leads an individual to do something that they normally might not have, to feel accepted and valued by their “group” (Peer Pressure and Influence: Pre-Teens and Teenagers). This PSA evokes a strong sense of pressure in the viewer to engage in smoking when three people, all with separate stereotypes, affirm that smoking is beneficial in a different, unique way. The first person presented in this commercial is a cowboy, telling the viewer that “tough, hard-working people smoke” (Anti-Smoking Cigarette Commercial). Then, a rapper is depicted, stating that “[a person] will look cool” (Anti-Smoking Cigarette Commercial) if they smoke. Finally, a woman appears, proclaiming that smoking makes a person “independent, beautiful, and mysterious” (Anti-Smoking Cigarette Commercial). All three of these statements from the PSA pressure the viewer in a sense that if the one wants to be any of the qualities mentioned to “fit in,” then they must engage in the act of smoking, just as the characters portrayed to. An alternative is not offered to the viewer, and they are left with biased thoughts about how smoking positively influences an individual.

In addition to the PSA instilling peer pressure in the viewer, it also misconceptualized tobacco products as a whole. The three characters previously mentioned, each emphatically offers their opinion on how the act of smoking can be a positive thing. What they fail to mention are the numerous disadvantages that come from smoking. One of the many disadvantages of smoking is that it not only affects the user’s health, but also the health of those around the user, such as friends and loved ones. In this commercial, only smokers' opinions are given, but the audience's perception would be altered if the people in the commercial were non-smoking bystanders. This would give the audience a more realistic perception of how smoking negatively permeates relationships other people have with smokers. Namely, secondhand smoke is the result of a burning cigarette and the actual smoke breathed out by a smoker being taken in by someone close by. When those nearby inhale in secondhand smoke, it can lead to asthma attacks, respiratory infections, and even the development of lung cancer– even though the bystander is not smoking! It is especially dangerous if infants or younger children breathe in these fumes because their bodies are not mature enough to fight off the toxins from a cigarette. Even if one may not necessarily care about their health, it is impactful to understand how harmful cigarettes can be to others to go against the deceptive appearance of smoking as a good thing. Knowledge about the sobering consequences of smoking will allow an individual to watch this PSA and hopefully not engage in the act because they know it is being falsely advertised.

Ultimately, tobacco products lead to respiratory issues in an individual. The toxins in cigarette smoke can “interfere with the structure and function of the respiratory tract” (Jiang), altering the natural breathing process that occurs in the human body. This explains why smokers are more likely to develop respiratory issues than non-smokers would. For example, in the final ten seconds of this commercial, an elderly man who is experiencing the repercussions of smoking warns viewers of his potentially fatal scenario. He tells the viewer “but the reality is, that you can end up looking like this” (Anti-Smoking Cigarette Commercial). Upper respiratory issues affect one’s whole airway or any part of it, so the raspy sound of the old man’s voice and the way that he can barely speak showcases the detrimental consequences smoking can bring about. Young people do not understand the capacity of how certain things they do in their daily life can negatively affect them when they are much older, which is ironic since the three characters in this commercial who influence the viewer to smoke all appear younger. Quitting as soon as possible reduces a smoker’s risk of ending up like this patient in fifty years.

Some teenagers may say smoking cigarettes makes you look cool. In this PSA, the rapper depicted offers the viewer an ideology that partaking in this activity of smoking will give one the same cool suaveness he projects. For a lot of young adults, when their parents tell them not to do something, it makes them want to do it even more. Many parents make their kids aware that smoking is bad for them and they should not, or are not allowed to do it. This instills a rebellious mindset within teenagers, making them feel cooler when they do smoke a few cigarettes, knowing they are not supposed to. However, what young people fail to realize is that as far as health goes, smoking really is not cool. The reality is that if one starts and continues to smoke, one could end up in the same wheelchair as the patient shown at the end of the PSA.

Ultimately, there is no safe way to smoke, and this deception that smoking is a good thing is solely for the tobacco company to acquire capital, rather than benefit the user in any capacity. If anything, the company itself knows that cigarettes are harmful to the human body, but promotes their product in other positive ways by making sure not to address health concerns. Deception is dirty, and a person’s lungs will be too if they do not educate themselves on the reality of this issue. It is pertinent to “undo [this] deception” (Anti-Smoking Cigarette Commercial) and enlighten others about how tobacco products actually affect an individual.

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Home / Essay Samples / Sociology / Communication / Cigarette Ads

Cigarette Ads Essay Examples

Role of cigarette companies’ promotion and advertisement in the tobacco use.

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The Role of Brand Image in Cigarette Ads

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The Lack of Truth in Cigarette Ads

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Why Tobacco Use is not Banned

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Changing Cigarette Advertising for a Decade

Throughout my essay I will discuss how drastically the advertisement of cigarettes has changed over the decades and how societies perception of smoking has been completely altered over the years. Over the last 75 years tobacco companies have used a number of tactics to increase...

Cigarette Ads: the Magic of Persuasion

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