Covering cigarette advertising to children, history,today, marlboro advertising, anti-advertising, regulations and restrictions
Cigarette advertisements have a long history spanning back to the 1700s. The first known smoking ads were in the United States for snuff and other tobacco products placed in a newspaper in 1789. Since then spending on cigarette advertisements has steadily climbed with an estimated $4 Billion spent per year.
Cigarette advertising today is lavished with $11 million daily. The raise of cigarette advertising has been fueled by growing anti-smoking campaigns and smoking laws. A steadily dwindling market due to changing societal consciousness has opened new subtle frontiers targeting teens and smoking.
The overall point driven home when the tobacco industry anti-smoking advertisements target young people is that it's OK to smoke when you are older. It raises aspirations and a desire to smoke even before teens are older. Those critical about cigarette advertising to children feel tobacco companies are in a rush to secure a threatened future by getting children favorably conscious about smoking.
Weaker or relaxed advertising regulations and restrictions in developing countries have not made things easier. Tobacco companies have found new and safer havens in Africa and Asia were economies hungry for foreign exchange from tobacco exports would rather remain tight lipped.
350 million people smoke cigarettes in China.These are locally manufactured cigarettes creating thousands of jobs.
Many cigarette advertisements have been accused of misleading people into thinking smoking can be healthful after all. Marlboro cigarette advertising is a case in point. The use of cartoons in cigarette advertisements has further been pin-pointed as an attempt to lure under age smokers. This was the case with the Joe Camel campaign in the US. Due to fierce opposition the cigarette advertising campaign was abruptly terminated in 1997.
New other promising cigarette advertising frontiers are that targeting women. In fact data has shown that male smoking is leveling out with women statistics coming up to the same levels as men. A steady but sure increase in the number of female smokers. This is not surprising, the appearance of women in cigarette advertisements no longer only serve to communicate an inviting message to men but also an assurance to women that its alright to smoke.
With film actor smoking appearances becoming more and more opposed and falling, smoking ads are intensifying in magazines. The following list by Dr Joel Dunninton of Tobacco Almanac indicates cigarette ads in a single issue of a magazine.
Penthouse - 20 ads with 3 free packs redeemable coupons
Rolling Stone - 11 ads with 3 free packs redeemable coupons
Glamour - 8 ads
Road and Track - 8 ads
Sport(what an ironic surprise) - 7 ads
Working Woman - 6 ads
Millions of dollars more are spent ironically supporting sporting events in schools, colleges and universities by tobacco companies. Crowd pullers like Formula One have enjoyed support from Marlboro cigarettes.For instance in 2006 Marlboro sponsored Ferrari.
NASCAR Championship was dollar supported by R J Reynolds until 2003. The pattern is the same elsewhere across the world in virtually every sporting area.
However in F1, under pressure the screws are being tightened. Many teams are dropping tobacco sponsorship with those still interested going without displaying logos and brand colors. For some races tobacco sponsorship is also becoming restricted or banned altogether.
