Week 2 Group Presentation - Advertising

Our group has decided to research and discuss tobacco companies and their advertising practices. According to the tobaccofreekids.org homepage, tobacco companies have spent $35.6 billion so far this year on advertising. They advertise by using most (if not all) the principles we discussed in this week’s lesson on advertising;

1. they are everywhere
2. they use repetition,
3. they use psychological appeals to consumers to encourage them to buy their products, and
4. they organize people by quantitative characteristics so they can effectively market to them.

These companies tend to advertise in any as many areas as possible including movies, television, magazines, the internet, billboards, clothing, points of sale, and even on transportation (buses, trains, taxis, etc.)

They engage very heavily in product placement. Examples are scenes in movies, where characters use products with the company names or logos very conspicuously displayed. This is something they actually planned. They also use stealth marketing to convince consumers by using images of healthy, attractive and young looking people using their products which is far from the reality, that those who tend to use their products are far from healthy.

According to an article on Corpwatch.org, some of these companies have affiliations with some government officials. They also have alliances with corporations, such as Winston's alliance with NASCAR and Formula One's alliance with Marlboro.

Their target audience seems to be anyone and everyone with lungs because they have something to target any demographic, race, age or class. For example, this picture shows them using colors that are more likely to attract young women.

They have also changed the images that they've used several times. An NY Times article explores these changes over time.

They seem to be heavily employing several of the Jib Fowles’15 psychological appeals. They use people’s need for affiliation in marketing to these demographics. The images they often use, are images that consumers want to be affiliated with or images of what consumers wish to experience.

It’s hard to say that there’s a typical consumer for these products because they are marketed in such a variety of ways. Each of these ways isn't always meant for a specific demographic. For example, when the hero of a movie is shown smoking, it’s hard to say that it’s meant for a particular audience.

It is inarguable that everyone fantasizes about being the hero of their own movie. Most people end up trying to project the same image as the hero. This article states that 60% of all smoking images are seen in G, PG and P-13 rated movies.

The public image of tobacco companies is virtually non-existent. They try especially hard to keep a low profile it seems by emphasizing their products and not themselves as a company. Even with this being the case, there are people that perceive them in a negative light which is why they spend so much money trying to rectify that perception. According to TheTruth.com's fact files, they spent $21 million to tell the general public that they had donated money to charity, when the estimated total of the money they sent amounted to approximately $125,000. These companies brand their product by associating it with images that people want to be associated with.

Aesthetically they use colors and images that will attract specific groups of people and also make their products attractive TO these people and others.

This makes it easy to argue that they want to be perceived as cool and the kind of people everyone should aspire to be.

The messages behind their images, logo and slogans are that the consumers of their products can partake in the lifestyle, emotion or persona that they project.

The subtext is often "you can be like this person or experience what they're experiencing, if you smoke". This is definitely the message they push and promote to kids as evidenced by this video below.


They use Robert Cialdini's principles of trigger feature and commitment/consistency. Like we said before, they employ the principles of Jib Fowles's ideas of 15 psychological appeals and seem to rely most heavily on the need for sex, attention, affiliation, escape and prominence. It's impossible for anyone to argue that they don't exploit those needs.

Their advertising is VERY deceptive AND manipulative simply because it never reflects reality. Their advertising is filled with images of people who are healthy, wealthy and slim which creates the idea in peoples' minds that smoking is not harmful despite the warnings. This way of advertising is so powerful that people still continue to smoke because they don't readily associate smoking with the image of a person with a hole in their throat.

The marketers represent the world we live in as this perfect Utopian society in which everyone is happy, popular, wealthy, healthy, and can smoke without any negative outcomes or side effects. At times, they portray the world as a place in which smoking may even help one's popularity. The fact that they portray the world as they do leads us to believe that those who consume their products believe in that world or want to be a part of that world (they want to experience that world, and hope to do so through cigarette use).

This representation is having DEVASTATING effects on the world. According to TheTruth.com's Facts A La Carte:

1. Approximately 5.6 million years of potential life are lost EACH year because of smoking
2. 1,755000 of former smokers have had a heart attack from smoking,
3. 2,633,000 have chronic bronchitis from smoking.

Those who believe in cultural determinism are right about the power of media because according to this video 52% of kids in non-smoking homes began smoking because of the influence of movies and magazines all of which are considered media.

Further Links

http://www.health.ri.gov/media/981222b.php

http://www.tobaccofreedom.org/issues/documents/image/images_image/1999cigreport.PDF

http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/268413.html

http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/268413.html#images