Issues

Advertising

One of the major obstacles to preventing underage smoking is the strong influence of advertising.

Tobacco Advertising and Teens

• All states prohibit sale and distribution of tobacco products to minors, but only 9 states restrict advertising of tobacco products.

Media focuses on the youth of America

Tobacco industries spend four to six billion dollars every year targeting the youth of America into using their products. Tobacco related illness is one of the leading causes of death taking more lives than AIDS, car crashes, suicide, alcohol, murder, drug addictions, and fires combined, according to the CDC. Every day more than 3000 young people decide to start smoking, and a third of those young smokers will ultimately die from a tobacco related illness states the CDC.

Find out more about the new video to keep youth tobacco free.

Cigar sales have increased drastically

Due to a dramatic increase in cigar sales, in 1998 the leading cigar companies were forced to produce a detailed account of their advertisements and endorsements to the Federal Trade Commission. Companies were also required to provide a record of the total number of cigars sold, the amount of money spent on advertisement of any kind, and the total amount of money received from the cigar sales. Over a two year period beginning in 1996 the amount of money cigar companies spent on advertising increased by over thirty percent. The use of conventional advertising such as newspapers and magazines increased by fifty-one percent. Future cigar sales and advertisement is being kept closely monitored according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Fifty percent of the smokers between the ages of 12 and 17 prefer Marlboro, followed by 25 percent favoring Newport and 11 percent preferring Carmel. In 2000 ten percent of non smokers in middle school have a product advertising cigarette companies. In recent years, tobacco companies have started to target women with promises of being trim, attractive and athletic. The companies have also focused on minority groups as a main demographic for their advertisments. Read more here.

Marketing in Stores Increases Reports MMWR

According to the Federal Trade Commission tobacco sales have increase by 6.7 billion dollars in 1998 and 8.2 billion in 1999. Out of all the stores surveyed, 92 percent of them contained some sort of tobacco advertisement. 80 percent of the stores contained interior ads while 59 percent contained exterior forms of advertisement. While 69.8 percent of the stores contained signs saying "We Card", only 4.1 percent of the stores had any sort of sign mentioning the health risks associated with tobacco use. Self service stations were available in 36.4 percent of the stores and a quarter of the stores surveyed offered discounts for purchasing multiple packs at one time. It has been previously discovered that 3 out of 4 teenagers walk into a convenient store containing a high amount of tobacco marketing at least once a week.

Read more here and here.

Tobacco Advertisment Skyrockets

Since 1997 the amount of money spent on tobacco advertisements have doubled, after an increase of 17 percent from last year. Companies are spending 11.2 billion dollars a year, or 30 million dollars a day advertising cigarettes and tobacco products. There are five main markets where the money is being spent:retail value promotion, promotion allowances/payments, coupons, item distribution and finally public entertainment. 110.6 million dollars were spent on sporting events in 2001 alone. Smokeless tobacco companies have spent over 236.7 million dollars on advertisement and promotions alone.

Media Literacy Kit

A two piece kit designed by Health Canada to help young women learn skills for making informed decisions in the face of the onslaught of advertisements most kids are exposed to daily.  Contains a book of activities and resources and a book of fact sheets.  Includes a guidebook for parents or facilitators. Available online.