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The Tobacco Industry wants you!
You are “The Replacements”
- “Young adult smokers are the only source of replacement
smokers.”
Source: RJR Tobacco Company, Bates No. 503170243
- 28% of college smokers began to smoke regularly at or after age 19, at which point most were already in college. (Ibid.)
- Almost 1 in 8 college students initiate smoking while in college (Everett and Huston, 1999; Wechsler et al., 1998; Wetter, et al., 2004). www.trdrp.org
Tobacco Marketing to College Aged Youth
source: www.tobaccofreekids.org |
When the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement prohibited tobacco advertising to children under the age of 18, the tobacco industry intensified its marketing efforts towards 18-24 year olds. Perhaps not coincidentally, young adults are now the only age group in which smoking rates are rising rather than falling. Advertising in the college and alternative press and bar promotions which involve the distribution of free cigarettes are some of the ways in which the tobacco industry targets college-aged youth. (www.ttac.org) |
Dead Sexy?
Tobacco companies target women and girls using aggressive advertising that exploits the images of beauty, independence, empowerment, slimness, and sex appeal. Check out tobaccofreekids.org for a closer look at what they are doing. |
source: www.tobaccofreekids.org |
Toughness and Masculinity
source: www.tobaccofreekids.org |
Images such as the Marlboro Man equate smoking with a macho ruggedness that is appealing to men and boys. This theme mirrors the pressures many men and boys face to be “tough”. Boys may believe that smoking will give them the aura of coolness they are searching for. Check out youthdevelopment.suite101.com for more information. |
Social Smoking
"I don't smoke except when I'm out with my friends or at a party."
Social smoking is a phenomenon that has become most popular among college students and other young adults. Social smoking primarily occurs in social settings, such as at parties, nightclubs, coffee shops, etc. Social smokers do not tend to smoke when they are alone. Most people who smoke socially do not identify themselves as “smokers” and believe they can quit smoking whenever they want. |
Social Smoking Facts
source: www.tobaccofreekids.org |
A University of Wisconsin (2004) study published in the American Psychological Association Journal of Health Psychology found that almost 90% of college students who were daily smokers and 50% of occasional smokers were still smoking four years later. (www.aadac.com) In one study, approximately half of young people who began smoking "casually" or "socially" were smoking every day within one year. Smoking cigarettes only occasionally can lead to a daily smoking pattern and addiction to nicotine. (www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2573.html) |
Social Smoking is a Tobacco Industry Marketing Tactic
Since as early as the 1970’s tobacco industry marketers used the concept of “social smoking” to appeal to and manipulate consumers to start and continue smoking in order to combat the negative health information that was becoming more widely known and accepted in the United States. Following are excerpts from a Brown and Williamson (Kool brand cigarettes) memo about how marketing the idea of “social smoking” could keep people smoking:
In 1977 B & W began a ‘Social Smoking Project’ where the object was to “provide smokers with strong reasons to continue smoking.” This project was made in response to the government’s negative findings regarding effects of smoking on health and was built on “physical and psychological defenses.” An example of their physical defense was to engineer a cigarette that gave off no secondhand smoke and examples of the psychological defenses were to create “a more positive self image,” and to give “more positive perceptions of the smoking habit” to users.
The memo can be found at www.legacy.library.ucsf.edu/
source: www.tobaccofreekids.org
For more information on tobacco, smoking and nicotine check out these websites:
Nicotine Addiction
How Stuff Works
An online source of credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
NIDA's mission is to lead the Nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction.
Tobacco Industry
Trinkets and Trash
The online surveillance system and archive of tobacco products and tobacco industry marketing materials.
Truth in Advertising
Collection of vintage cigarette ads.
UCSF Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (LTDL)
Search, view, and download more than 10 million documents created by the tobacco industry concerning scientific research, manufacturing, marketing, advertising, and sales of cigarettes. Sponsored by the American Legacy Foundation.
Infect Truth
The Truth Campaign: This is the organization behind those cool anti-tobacco industry ads we all love. Dedicated to exposing the lies, manipulations and products of the tobacco industry.
Sacramento Taking Action Against Nicotine Dependence (STAND)
Kicking some serious butts on the streets of Sacramento.
Tobacco and Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Committed to achieving true improvements in people’s lives by accelerating health impact and reducing health disparities.
American Heart Association
Mission is to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Mayo Clinic
Providing information and services from the world's first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group medical practice.
Tobacco Free California
Learn about the dangers of secondhand smoke and how youth are impacted by tobacco marketing, illegal sales of cigarettes and smoking in the movies.
Tobacco Related Disease and Research Program (TRDRP)
Dedicated to the support research that focuses on the prevention, causes, and treatment of tobacco-related disease and the reduction of the human and economic costs of tobacco use in California.
Want to Stop Smoking?
We Can Help!
Maybe you’ve tried to quit too.
Why is quitting and staying quit so hard for so many people?
Every day about 4,000 young people start to smoke.
And, about 50% of them will become addicted to nicotine. The teen and young adult years are a time of experimentation, providing the tobacco industry with the opportunity to target young people for addiction.
The most common reasons cited for tobacco use among college students are stress, boredom and partying.