Walking down the street and enjoying your first morning cigarette is a completely different experience in a European town, in comparison to a town in the United States. People in the United States often look down on smokers, give them a pitiful or a judgmental glance as they pass by. In Europe, on the other hand, the cafes on either side of the street are packed with youth chatting and smoking cigarettes. Smoking in Europe is a part of culture. However, despite strong stigma towards smokers in the United States, more than 47 million adults smoke cigarettes. So, who is to blame? As my readers might expect, I will once again single out the media as a major promoter of smoking among American youth.
Even though TV and radio ads that promote smoking have been banned in the US, magazines offer the most advertising for tobacco products, both cigarettes and non-smoke tobacco products. Magazines are a very powerful kind of media; when a teen-age girl opens her favorite publication and encounters a page that advertises the new, pink, Camel no.9 cigarettes with the inscription: “Light and luscious”, she is very likely to attribute to it the adjective “cool”. Why do teenagers start smoking in most cases? Because teenagers have come to agree that smoking is cool, thanks to media and associations it creates between smoking and being hip, and famous. According to an article in USA Today: the new Camel ad was a hit with girls ages 12 to 16, among a study of 1,036 adolescents. The inscription, in addition to the pink color, creates an illusion that smoking these cigarettes is very appropriate for girls, and emphasizes their feminine side. In addition the warning sign, which consists of tiny inscription in the corner of the page says: “Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight”, which implies that this tobacco product is indeed targeted for women, but that it can be harmful only to pregnant women. So, just imagine a 13 year old girl who reads this. By being inexperienced and gullible, she is likely to think that smoking Camel no.9 is perfectly fine, as long a she is not pregnant. Furthermore, another teenage magazine juxtaposes Camel 9 ad with a fashion page entitled Dressed to the 9. This ad for a vintage store shows an elegant black dress, and 8 different accessories, implying that the 9th one should be the new Camel 9 cigarettes.
Besides the design appeal of cigarette ads, magazines intentionally, or unintentionally, associate smoking with fame, fashion, and beauty. In the fashion world, cigarettes have become an accessory, a symbol of something exciting and daring. A photograph on the cover of fashion magazine that shows a very well put together girl, with perfect hair style, and make-up, inevitably conveys confidence and power of women. Consequently, a cigarette between her fingers immediately absorbs some of that meaning. An average young girl looking at the cover sees very expensive clothing that she cannot afford. However, she could afford the cigarette, which, in this context, becomes a symbol of fashion, and female power. Furthermore, the picture of a skinny model smoking creates a correlation between cigarettes and body image that a 13 year old girl is prone to equate with truth; smoking can make me look skinny and perfect, just like the model. 
However, cigarette ads don’t only appeal to teenage girls. Almost equal percentages of teenage boys start smoking around the same age as girls. Just as the pink color, and fashion associations attract girls’ attention, so does the very masculine image of a cowboy on the Marlboro ad attract boys’ attention. The image of the cowboy next to his horse, with gorgeous mountains in the background, and a lariat wrapped around his knee, lighting a Marlboro cigarette easily translates into a representation of a confident man who is not intimidated by loneliness and grandeur of the nature surrounding him. Teenage boys are likely to find this add appealing, especially in the age that forces them to find a comfort zone, and express their “coolness”. Moreover, Ferrari formula 1 image can be associated with Marlboro advertising. One of the main sponsors of this company is Marlboro, whose sign appears on the jackets of the team, as well as on the formula itself. In such a context, Marlboro acquires the attributes of courage, adrenaline, fearlessness, masculinity, victory etc. Moreover, the new tobacco products, known as non-smoke tobacco, have advertisements that are targeted particularly towards boys and men. The ads for famous Skoal tobacco pouches show males of different ages, some of whom are in a serious business meeting, while some are just fishing, and having a great time with their friends. The inscription says: Moist Skoal pouches are easy to put in, easy to take out and easy to enjoy anywhere”, which emphasizes how very convenient they are, acceptable, and ordinary. Moreover, one of the new brands is called “Bandits”, which conveys the idea of strength and courage.
All of these symbolical connotations spur the desire of teenagers to start smoking. The smartness of tobacco advertising lies in its ability to indirectly convey certain values. The teenage years is the most challenging time for youth as they try to establish their personality, search for role models, and look for help. The deceiving tobacco commercials are likely to fool a young girl who wants to be beautiful and famous, and a boy who seeks confidence and strength. The statistics show that cigarette ads are very successful in feeding teenagers with such ideas, and hopes; 21% of high school children smoke in the United States, despite many bans put on cigarette advertising. This reality is sad, especially in a society that appears to be marginalizing smoking. As a consequence, a teenager who was just looking to become better, because the ad showed him he or she would, ends up with a stigma of a smoker. What should they do then? Move to Europe?
I don’t want to put the blame entirely on media, i.e. magazines, since I would be undermining the crucial role of parents in children’s education. Moreover TV media puts a lot of effort in advertising against smoking. However, we might wonder how come that the numerous anti-smoking efforts don’t have an impact on 47 million of Americans, and particularly among teenagers? Well, a lot about that in the next blog…until then the question is: How to prevent early onset of smoking among teenagers? Should high schools provide an environment that will not prompt boys and girls to seek their ideals in cigarettes? Or, should/can parents limit their children’s exposure to implicit and explicit cigarette ads?
Sources:
- Camel 9 ad: Deseret News. http://www.deseretnews.com
- camel 9 and fashion: http://www.socialbranding.org/sb/images/stories/camel.gif
- Fashion magazine cover: http://blog.modelmanagement.com/2010/01/07/the-glamour-of-smoking/
- Marlboro ad: http://130.18.140.19/mmsoc/subliminal/marlboro.html
- Ferrari formula 1: http://f1-fia-race.blogspot.com/2009/05/ferrari-f60-picture-gallery.html
- Smoking in fashion: http://blog.modelmanagement.com/2010/01/07/the-glamour-of-smoking/
All sites accessed on date: 05-08-2010
Posted by S.S. for Writing 8 class
Isn’t it interesting that the cigarette can be both a symbol of feminine fashion -- as your “Dressed to the 9” example shows -- and of rugged machismo -- as your cowboy ad illustrates? I wonder -- are there other products that have managed to pull off this sort of polar, dual image?
ReplyDeleteAs to your point that a teenage girl might think “smoking can make me look skinny and perfect, just like the model” -- I’m not sure I agree with that characterization of the thought process. These sorts of advertisements endorse a set of attributes that a “beautiful” person has -- the scarf, the sunglasses, the skinniness, the cigarette -- and perhaps the teen who views the advertisement feels that smoking allows here to meet at least one of the criteria for “beauty” or “coolness” that the picture puts forth.
I agree with nhmediablog that it's interesting that cigarette advertising embraces a cool that crosses genders. I hadn't thought about it before, but this isn't easy to do, in terms of advertising. What's cool for one gender is very often not cool for the other.
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting to consider whether or not there is an age at which people are less likely to start smoking. If someone turns, say twenty without smoking, will they pick it up? Twenty-five? Put another way, at what age are people most likely to start smoking? I'm sure that there are studies on this and that the advertisers are well aware of the findings.
It would also be interesting to know how many kids who smoke also have parents who smoke. I do think that the media has tremendous influence on children and their choices. But in-home behavior must matter, too.
Interesting stuff to think about here.
This is an interesting post. When you mentioned the different outlook on smoking in the U.S. v. Europe it made me wonder if the advertising for smoking in Europe is different. As you mentioned, the U.S. has significant restrictions on smoking advertisements, is this also the same in Europe?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder how much these advertisements actually do affect people to smoke? Like Gocsik said, I think there may be other factors that contribute to people's decisions to smoke, like: are there friends doing it, are they educated on the risks of smoking,ect.
But I do find the pink and green smoking advertisement to be particularly offensive, especially if it reached 12-16 year old girls. The use of "now available in stiletto" and "no. 9" makes it seem like cigerettes are some type of high class accessory.
To me, the most interesting thing about cigarette advertising is the fact that although each particular brand creates a distinct image, all cigarettes are essentially the same. Tobacco is a commodity--most people would not be able to tell the difference between a Marlboro Light and a Camel Light. Nevertheless, cigarette smokers exhibit incredible brand loyalty; I have friends that will time after time buy the same brand of cigarettes. Such is the genius of tobacco advertising; they have somehow manufactured distinctions--and there are no distinctions in commodity systems.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, however, the extent to which these brand images actually affect the particular decisions of the people I know who smoke. I have one friend who always buys Marlboro Reds, despite the fact that being a white female from Westchester County, the Marlboro Man hardly speaks to her identity or self image. Interesting post, all in all.
The smoking rate among the teenagers does seem to be higher among teenagers. You said, about 15% (47 million) of Americans smoke, and the rate is over 20% for teenegers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the media seems to play an important role in the issue. The commercials seem to target youth of lower income, and try to sell them what they don't have in a cigarete. It would be interesting to see the statistics of smoking broken down by income.