copy draft
Project: Health
Canada -- Tobacco and Youth site
Head: Tobacco Ads
Make Us Sick
Think friends are the only people
who influence your decision to smoke? Think again. There's another kind of peer
pressure out there. It comes from suits sitting around meeting tables figuring
out how to convince you that their cigarettes make you sexy, cool, rugged or
(our favourite) athletic. Companies that sell cigarettes have been finding ways to advertise to smokers -- and
people who don't smoke yet -- for years. And many of these forms of advertising
don't include taking out a full-page ad in a magazine. They have other ways to
get your attention and get you hooked.
Sure. Canada is turning itself
around when it comes to regulating and banning harmful ads -- We haven't seen
cigarette ads on television or heard them on the radio since the early 70's.
Cigarette print ads in Canada are highly regulated so looking at them now, you
might not even realize they're selling what they are -- black lungs, throat
cancer, yellow fingers and an addiction to nicotine that's stronger than
heroin.
But because tobacco companies
can't come right out and advertise in Canadian media anymore (the laws are
still very different in the U.S.) they've found ways to get around it. For
example, up until recently, tobacco has sponsored
arts and cultural events so they could hang their name and logo all
over the place to advertise the event. (Why do we get the feeling that "the
arts" have never been the top priority?)
They've also sponsored sporting
events for that same reason and for one other -- by supporting a sporting event,
the company brand is linked to the image
of healthy, vibrant athletes and their lifestyle. But as federal rules change
saying sponsors can soon only advertise at the event itself and show no logos, tobacco companies are
pulling out. Think jazz festivals and fireworks shows going belly up.
Subhead: Coming
to a mailbox near you
Some tobacco companies are now
going so far as to publishing their own "lifestyle" magazines sent directly to
your door. The publications are full of harmless sounding articles about yoga
and eating well, but run pages of company advertising. One magazine put out by
Imperial Tobacco targets young women -- the market many tobacco companies are
going after with a vengeance.
Then of course there are other
subtle ways tobacco companies get to you. How do you feel when your favourite
Hollywood celeb lights up on screen? Enough said.
Subhead: I'm
nobody's fool
You're right, you're not. And you
might want to believe that you're your own person and not easily swayed by ads
and images that big tobacco companies put out there. But numerous studies have
shown there is a direct link between advertisements and smoking.
Still not convinced? Then answer
this. Why else would tobacco companies spend millions of dollars on advertising
campaigns if they thought they didn't work?
Subhead:
Advertising code? Yeah, right.
Ask big tobacco companies if they
target teens though and they'll all say no. (Of course.) The standard line -- or
advertising code -- goes something like this:
"Our company does not try to influence individuals
under the legal age to take up smoking. We understand the inappropriateness of
marketing activities directed at underage youth, and we do not and will not
target kids."
So why do internal documents show
the Canadian tobacco companies conducted research on how to attract new smokers
and keep them hooked? One document uncovered from 1984 simply called
"Problem," says, "Canadian cigarette smokers are increasingly
less enchanted with being smokers... Fewer and fewer Canadians will smoke in
the future." The document then calculated a worst-case scenario: that smoking could disappear by the year
2020 if "starters," -- or kids -- were not targeted.
Now that you know a little more
about how advertising works, let us know what you think.