Sympathy with industry was measured in accordance with statements such as “cigarette companies are too guilty of young people who smoke” and “cigarette companies should have the same right to sell cigarettes that other companies have to sell their products” (Hriksen et al. 2006, p. fifteen). In addition, in the Western Australian youth survey described above, which included both smokers and non-smokers, industry-sponsored advertisements were considered to be very credible (Donovan et al. 2006). These corporate advertisements have increased the credibility of the industry message, although it is unlikely that it will necessarily change its attitude to smoking, can increase the positive attitude towards the tobacco industry and, in turn, reduce criticism from youth organizations in the community (Donovan et al. . 2006). In one study, adolescents who reported frequent exposure to tobacco marketing were found to attribute positive images to users of specific brands (Donovan et al. 2002).
Tobacco companies were one of the first companies to identify and implement effective and integrated marketing strategies, and cigarettes and other tobacco products were among the most traded consumer products in the United States . At the end of the 19th century, James Buchanan Duke used the cost benefits he achieved through his adoption of James Bonsack’ mechanized cigarette rolling machine to aggressively market his cigarette brands . Duke’s marketing practices include setting relatively low prices, delivering advanced packaging, performing promotions such as including cigarette pack photo cards and sponsoring various public events, and paying distributors and retailers to promote their brands . These strategies contributed to the growth of Duke’s American Tobacco Company, which dominated the American tobacco markets. Despite the collapse of confidence, US tobacco product markets have remained highly concentrated, with little price competition.
In fact, nearly two-thirds of teenagers in the United States report that they usually or usually see tobacco advertising when they visit convenience stores that may or may not be selling gas (Public Use Data Sets from the CDC 2004 National Survey of Juvenile Tobacco; Duke et al. 2009). Packaging strategies can also be used to offset the impact of other tobacco discouragement measures, such as price increases and taxes. For example, internal documents from the tobacco industry indicate that packaging cigarettes in smaller, more affordable units is an effective strategy to target price-sensitive young people (Cummings et al. 2002). Legislation in many countries, Smith and Wesson shield including the United States, now prohibits the sale of cigarettes in units under 20; However, innovations in physical form and package construction —such as the “portfolio packages” from BAT,”which open as a book and can be divided into two smaller packages—they have been criticized as an attempt to circumvent these prohibitions. Second, simple packaging has the potential to reduce the level of false beliefs about the harmfulness of different brands. Recent research suggests that substantial parts of young people and adults have false beliefs that one brand is less harmful or easier to leave than the other (Hammond and Parkinson’s 2009; Hammond et al. 2009).
The findings that promotions to lower prices and prices have a greater impact as young people progress to solid smoking are consistent with those described in Chapter 6. In view of these estimates, Slater and his colleagues have conducted various simulations to quantitatively assess the impact of point-of-sale advertising and promotions on acceptance among young people. They estimate that if none of the stores they observed had cigarette advertising, the prevalence of never smoking in their sample would have been about 9% higher. Likewise, they estimate that if no store had cigarette promotions, the prevalence of the current established smoking in their sample would have been more than 13% lower. As will be described in more detail in Chapter 6, a growing and increasingly sophisticated study has clearly shown that tobacco consumption among young people responds to changes in the prices of tobacco products. Most of these studies have shown that the level of use among young people changes more in response to price changes than the level of use among adults.
Studies cited in this chapter show that smoking prevention activities in the tobacco industry have not provided evidence that they are effective in reducing smoking by young people. Some studies, as well as industry documents, indicate that these programs may increase the likelihood of acceptance among young people by positioning smoking as an “adult only” activity, a concept that can attract young people. Other evidence has shown that reports in these programs divert attention from marketing efforts in the industry, as well as reports of product addiction.
The tobacco market in China has long been dominated by the China National Tobacco Corporation, a state-owned company responsible for nearly more than 90% of all cigarettes sold in China. In recent years, several leading tobacco manufacturers in the world, including Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Tobacco, have entered into a joint venture with the CTNC to increase their participation in the tobacco and cigarette market in China. A follow-up to these cohorts in year 2 showed an increase in knowledge of the physiological effects of smoking in the national sample, but decreases to the same extent in the West Virginia sample .
The evidence in this chapter also describes industry actions to attract price-sensitive populations, such as young people, to your products, and to mitigate the impact on consumer prices of increases in federal and state taxes on tobacco (Chaloupka et al. 2002). Because there are strong indications that as the price of tobacco products increases, Tobacco use decreases, especially among young people, then any action that mitigates the impact of price increases and, therefore, reducing the purchase price of tobacco may increase the start and use of tobacco products among increase young people. In addition to advertising and promotions, the tobacco industry has invested heavily in packaging design to establish a brand identity and promote brand appeal (Pollay 2001; Wakefield et al. 2002a). Research by the tobacco industry and quoted in this chapter has consistently shown that brand images on packages mainly affect adolescence and young adulthood when smoking behavior and brand preferences develop (DiFranza et al. 1994; Pollay 2000, 2001). Recent research suggests that even when terms such as “light” and “mild” are prohibited in tobacco packaging and advertising, a significant proportion of adult and young smokers continue to report false beliefs about the relative risk of cigarette brands (Hammond et al. 2009). Studies suggest that the use of lighter colors in cigarette packs involves lightness, as well as replacement words such as “soft” have the same misleading effect as “light” and “soft” labels (Pollay 2001; Wakefield et al. 2002a; Hammond 2009a).
There is strong empirical evidence, along with the internal documents and evidence from the tobacco industry, as well as generally accepted advertising and marketing principles that support the conclusion that tobacco manufacturers’ advertising, marketing, and promotions recruit new users when they were young and continue to use young adults strengthen. Among adults who become daily smokers, almost all (88%) first cigarette use takes place at the age of 18, with 99% of the first use at the age of 26 (see chapter 3 of this report; SAMHSA 2009). Restrictions on the marketing of tobacco products, including a ban on television advertising, have had little impact on industry overhead in this area .
This research includes studies that have analyzed cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco products, as well as various stages of cigarette smoking among young people and young adults. Studies that have considered the beginning, progression and / or usage intensity have generally shown that the price has the greatest impact on young people more advanced in the absorption process, which is consistent with the transition from more confidence in social sources for cigarettes to a purchase . An NCI monograph assessing media influences on tobacco use for young people concluded that exposure to images from smoking films causes tobacco use in teenagers . Since that report was released, multiple population-based cross-sectional studies have provided consistent evidence supporting a causal link between film smoking exposure and smoking images among young people in the United States. While the number of on-screen smokers in movies has steadily declined since 2005, half of MPAA members’ film studios have adopted policies to reduce smoking images in their films, Movies generally continue to deliver billions of these images to teens . Cross-sectional and longitudinal population studies have shown a link between exposure to smoking in films and smoking among young people in samples of white and Mexican-American adolescents.