Children and Cigarette Promotion

In the UK at least, the golden age of tobacco advertising, when marketers could sponsor film stars to smoke their brands while running print ads that promoted the ‘health’ benefits of tobacco, is now long over. With the link between tobacco and respiratory diseases well-established, ‘Big Tobacco’ faces severe limits on the way it advertises its wares.

In the UK it’s illegal to advertise cigarettes to children. That may be a victory for health campaigners – but it’s a big headache for the tobacco companies.

Why Tobacco Companies Care About Kids

Statistics show that 80% of smokers took up cigarettes during their teenage years. Therefore, anti-tobacco campaigners argue, to safeguard future profits they must actively recruit teenage smokers. This is a claim that tobacco companies strongly deny, but critics are adamant that whatever the tobacco lobby says in public, it still has to gear tobacco adverts to attract young smokers.

Cigarette Cards And Marlboro Men

Back when tobacco companies didn’t have to face so much advertising regulation they worked hard to make smoking attractive to youngsters. In the early part of the century illustrated collectible 'cigarette cards' were given away with different brands of tobacco. Later on iconic figure such as the 'Marlboro Man' were employed to give smoking a rugged, masculine image designed to appeal to young men.

Cigarettes On Movies And TV

During the 1950s and 1960s tobacco sponsorship of TV and radio programmes was legal on commercial stations. Panellists could even be seen smoking on TV game shows and even during political debates.

However, up until the early 90s cigarette brands would also covertly pay to have stars smoke their brand of cigarettes in feature films aimed at children. For example, in 1979 the company behind Marlboro paid over 42 thousand dollars to have their brand featured in Superman II, while in 1988 Philip Morris ensured their cigarettes would be in the James Bond film Licence to Kill by paying out 350,000 dollars to the producers. The tobacco lobby says that no such deals have taken place since 1990, although critics claim that many films still glamorise smoking to children, whether a particular brand of cigarettes is seen or not.

Making Smoking Cool

The cigarette companies invested heavily in films because they knew that having the hero smoke their brand would make kids in the audience want to too. The idea that smoking looks ‘cool’ is a big part of the way tobacco companies advertise to children. Joe Camel, the cartoon character that Camel used to lure young smokers in the 90s, may have been banned - but that hasn’t stopped tobacco companies used other methods of making their product appeal to youngsters. For example, Kool cigarettes have come under fire by campaigners after it introduced ‘flavoured’ versions of their cigarettes. By creating products such as ‘Caribbean Chill’ and ‘Mocha Taboo’, critics said the company were trying to lend cigarettes a glamorous image, as well making them sound like sweets.

Banning Cigarette Advertising

Anti-cigarette sentiment now appears to be stronger than ever in the UK. This mood has been reflected in laws severely restricting tobacco marketing. Nearly all kinds of tobacco advertising (such as print ads and the sponsoring of sports events) have been banned within the EU ever since 1991. In this climate, cigarette companies are faced with a dilemma. With the legal opportunities to advertise dwindling they can either concentrate on more innovative ways to persuade young people to smoke (while knowing that regulatory bodies are watching their every move) – or give up the ghost and concentrate on emerging Asian markets, where regulation is virtually non-existent.