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1) Search through two or three national newspapers and identify the

advertisements targeted at the over-50s age group. Analyse these
advertisements to identify how the images and messages have been
developed to appeal specifically to this group
Every day, children and youths in the United States are exposed to a wide array of persuasive,
carefully crafted commercial messages encouraging the use of tobacco products. In 1991 the
tobacco industry spent $4.6 billion—more than $12.6 million a day, $8,750 a minute—on
advertising and promoting* cigarette consumption, and over $100 million on advertising and
promoting smokeless tobacco products.1 During the past 15 years, the tobacco industry has
nearly quadrupled** its marketing expenditures, at a time when tobacco consumption has been
declining. Each day, approximately 3,500 Americans quit smoking and an additional 1,200
tobacco customers and former customers die of smoking-related illness; therefore, maintaining
current levels of tobacco use and revenues requires that approximately 5,000 new smokers be
recruited every day (about 2 million a year).2 Children and youths constitute the most likely
source of new smokers. The 1991 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse data reveal that
the large majority (89%) of persons ages 30-39 who ever smoked daily tried their first cigarette
by age 18, and 62% by age 16; over three quarters (77%) were smoking daily before age 20.3 At
least 3 million American teenagers smoke regularly and 3 million people who regularly use
smokeless tobacco are under age 21.4Three trends have caused a growing number of public
health professionals to call attention to the role of marketing (advertising and other promotional
approaches) in making tobacco use attractive to children and youths and in encouraging them
to use cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. First, boys and girls are beginning to use tobacco at
ever younger ages. The average age at which boys and girls initiate smoking has declined over
the past 4 decades by 2.4 years overall for whites, 1.3 years overall for African Americans, and
5.4 and 4.6 years for white girls and African-American girls, respectively.5 The trend for girls
to begin smoking at an earlier age began between 1955 and 1966, 6 and the likelihood of
becoming a daily smoker at an earlier age increased sharply in the early to mid-1970s both for
boys and girls.7 During the same period, a second alarming trend in tobacco use has been noted:
more and more, youths began using smokeless tobacco products. Half of the nation's 6 million
smokeless tobacco users are under the age of 21, and several national surveys show an increase
in prevalence, especially among boys.8 A third trend, which has occurred over the past 10 years,
entails a slowing down of the rate at which smoking prevalence by youths had been decreasing.
Between 1977 and 1981, daily smoking among high school seniors dropped a total of about
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9% (from 29% to 20%), an average of 2.25 percentage points per year. Yet during the following
11 years, 1981 to 1992 (during which time the tobacco industry more than doubled its
advertising and promotion expenditures) smoking by high school seniors fell by only a total of
about 3% (to 17.2%), or only 0.26 percentage points per year. Among college students, from
1980 to 1992, the decrease in daily smoking was about the same as for high school seniors,
except that for 1989-1992 there was a slight upward trend in prevalence of cigarette
use.9 Notably, during this same period (19811991), the per capita cigarette consumption fell
28% among adults.10

What factors have contributed to stable smoking rates and to increased rates of smokeless
tobacco use among children and youths, but have proven to be less effective in sustaining
tobacco use by adults? Public health advocates suggest that youths have a heightened
sensitivity to image advertising and promotion themes at a time in their lives when they are
struggling to define their own identities. Adolescence is characterized by three major types of
developmental challenges: (a) physical maturation, (b) cultural pressures to begin the transition
to adult roles and emotional independence from parents, and (c) establishment of a coherent
self-concept and values.11 Cigarette advertisements are often evocative and play off these
challenges in addition to being positioned to appeal to specific groups defined by social class
and ethnic identity. Early adolescence (ages 11-14) in particular may be a time of increased
susceptibility to the appeal of image advertising and promotions. The possible effects of
marketing techniques on youths are considered below, following a brief review of shifting
trends in the appropriation of tobacco marketing dollars.

The tobacco industry's distribution of marketing expenditures over the past 2 decades
represents a major shift in marketing trends; overall, the ratio of promotional expenditures to
advertising expenditures has reversed. Whereas in 1970 advertisements represented 82% * of
total spending on tobacco marketing, they were down to 67% in 1980, 21% in 1990, and 17%
in 1991. Although advertising expenditures per se have decreased, overall spending on
marketing (advertising plus promotional activities) has increased. Of the $4.6 billion spent
annually on tobacco marketing, about $700 million is spent on advertising. The remaining $4
billion is spent on a variety of promotional activities designed to: (a) place cigarettes and
chewing tobacco in the hands of prospective users, (b) position cigarettes and chewing tobacco
in prominent locations in shops and other points of sale where they will be psychologically
appealing and physically available to customers, and (c) create good will for the tobacco
industry among the public, community leaders, and politicians.
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Promoting Tobacco Use to Consumers

The goal of marketing is to increase the appeal and acceptability of a product as well as to make
the product available to the potential consumer. Tobacco marketing strategies (a) establish
attitudinal predispositions that lead nonusers to experiment with tobacco products and interpret
their experience as positive and rewarding, (b) foster the perception that consumption of
tobacco products in general and in particular contexts (places, times) is normative, (c) minimize
concern about the potential risks associated with tobacco use, propagating the perception that
there are ''safe" smoking options, and (d) reassure smokers and users of smokeless tobacco that
possible risks are worth the benefits received from tobacco use. Marketing strategies promote
both brand-specific and aggregate tobacco use. The impression that tobacco use is desirable
and normative is conveyed through image advertising and promotions that make tobacco
products highly visible in public spaces—if not by their presence, then by proxy in the forms
of brand trademarks, insignia, logos, and items associated with preestablished brand images
(for example, adventure scenarios). The major forms of marketing are highlighted below.

1.
Retail value-added promotions and specialty items. Dramatically on the rise are retail
value-added promotions such as multiple packs (buy one, get one free), cents-off
coupons, and a free key chain or lighter blister-packed to a cigarette pack. Value-added
promotions and coupons constituted the largest marketing expenditure (40% of total
marketing expenditures) by the tobacco industry in 1991. Promotional items have
special appeal to youths. Since youths have less disposable income and are more price-
sensitive than adults, promotions such as discount buy-one-get-one-free schemes may
be especially attractive to them. Coupons are easily accessible to youths through direct-
mail promotions. (See figure 4-2 for expenditure data for this section.) Attractive
specialty items—such as T-shirts, caps, calendars, and sporting goods—are distributed
by the tobacco industry through the mail and at promotional events. These items, which
sport a logo or brand name, become walking advertisements capable of penetrating
areas of a child's world that might be offlimits to other forms of advertising. The
ubiquity of such speciality items conveys the impression that tobacco use is the norm.
Spending for specialty items accounted for 4% of expenditures in 1991. A 1992 Gallup
survey found that half of all adolescent smokers and one-quarter of adolescent
nonsmokers owned at least one promotional item from a tobacco company. 14 Similar
data were reported in a survey of almost 8,000 ninth graders in Erie County, New York:
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65% of regular smokers, 48% of occasional smokers, and 28% of nonsmokers reported
owning clothing with a cigarette brand logo.15 Although most youths seem to find logo
clothing appealing, some high school students in focus groups (conducted under the
auspices of the Committee) found them "tacky" and would not consider wearing them.
Notably, however, these same teens save Marlboro Miles and Camel Cash coupons in
order to acquire other types of goods. In a 1993 survey of 1,047 respondents ages 12-
17, ownership of an average of 3.2 tobacco promotional items was reported by 10.6%
of the sample. While 68.2% of current smokers reported participating in promotional
campaigns, 28.4% of nonsmoking teens were also active participants. These
promotional items carry no warning labels and provide free advertising. 16