Nicotine marketing is the marketing of nicotine-containing products or use. Traditionally, the tobacco industry markets cigarette smoking, but it is increasingly marketing other products, such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products. Products are marketed through social media, stealth marketing, mass media, and sponsorship (particularly of sporting events). Expenditures on nicotine marketing are in the tens of billions a year; in the US alone, spending was over US$1 million per hour in 2016; in 2003, per-capita marketing spending was $290 per adult smoker, or $45 per inhabitant. Nicotine marketing is increasingly regulated; some forms of nicotine advertising are banned in many countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a complete tobacco advertising ban.
Effects
The effectiveness of tobacco marketing in increasing consumption of tobacco products is widely documented. Advertisements cause new people to become addicted, mostly when they are minors. Ads also keep established smokers from quitting. Advertising peaks in January, when the most people are trying to quit, although most people take up smoking in the summer.
The tobacco industry has frequently claimed that ads are only about "brand preference", encouraging existing smokers to switch to and stick to their brand. There is, however, substantial evidence that ads cause people to become, and stay, addicted. Marketing is also used to oppose regulation of nicotine marketing and other tobacco control measures, both directly and indirectly. For example, by improving the image of the nicotine industry and reducing criticism from youth and community groups. Industry charity and sports sponsorships are publicized (with publicity costing up to ten times the cost of the publicized act), portraying the industry as actively sharing the values of the target audience. Marketing is also used to normalize the industry ("Just Another Fortune 500 Company", "More Than a Tobacco Company"). Finally, marketing is used to give the impression that nicotine companies are responsible, "Open and Honest". This is done through an emphasis on informed choice and "anti-teen-smoking" campaigns, although such ads have been criticized as counterproductive (causing more smoking) by independent groups. Magazines, but not newspapers, that get revenue from nicotine advertising are less likely to run stories critical of nicotine products. Internal documents also show that the industry used its influence with the media to shape coverage of news, such as a decision not to mandate health warnings on cigarette packages or a debate over advertising restrictions. Counter-marketing is also used, mostly by public health groups and governments. The addictiveness and health effects of tobacco use are generally described, as these are the themes missing from pro-tobacco marketing. According to a 2019 study, television advertisement for tobacco "increased the share of smokers in the population by 5–15 percentage points, generating roughly 11 million additional smokers between 1946 and 1970."
Regulation and evasion techniques
Because it harms public health, nicotine marketing is increasingly regulated. Advertising restrictions typically shift marketing spending to unrestricted media. Banned on television, ads move to print; banned in all conventional media, ads shift to sponsorships; banned as in-store advertising and packaging, advertising shifts to shill (undisclosed) marketing reps, sponsored online content, viral marketing, and other stealth marketing techniques. Unlike conventional advertising, stealth marketing is not openly attributed to the organization behind it. This neutralizes mistrust of tobacco companies, which is widespread among children and the teenagers who provide the industry with most new addicts. Another method of evading restrictions is to sell less-regulated nicotine products instead of the ones for which advertising is more regulated. For instance, while TV ads of cigarettes are banned in the United States, similar TV ads of e-cigarettes are not. The most effective media are usually banned first, meaning advertisers need to spend more money to addict the same number of people. Comprehensive bans can make it impossible to effectively substitute other forms of advertising, leading to actual falls in consumption. However, skillful use of allowed media can increase advertising exposure; the exposure of U.S. children to nicotine advertising is increasing as of 2018.
Methods
Nicotine advertising uses specific techniques, but often uses multiple methods simultaneously. For instance, a 1999 advert for Virginia Slims uses many of the techniques discussed below. Its tagline read "NEVER let the goody two shoes get you down", making use of reactance; it had also been described as urging smokers to disregard health warnings. The model's gesture in the advert echoed earlier ads which made more explicit claims of voice box benefits. The 1999–2000 "Find your voice" ad campaign, of which this ad was a part, was criticized as offensive to smokers who have lost their voices to throat cancer, and as targeting minority women and seeking to associate itself with empowerment, independence, self-expression, women's rights, and sexual allure.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
