Should Alcohol and Tobacco Advertisement Be Banned? Essay

Since the early 2000s, there has been a big push for anti-smoking campaigns and programs. Even today on television shows for teenagers and children, there is a company called “The Truth” and they air informative commercials during those airtimes so they are seen by young adults. They use powerful yet succinct tactics to capture the attention of the youth, who, are the most impressionable audience for vices such as tobacco and other drugs. Advertisements for cigarette companies such as Marlboro and Camel have been banned from television commercials and have been replaced with “The Truth” and “Tobacco Free America”. It’s 2015 and there has been a significant drop in young adult smokers; why make it easier for people to start smoking or continue if there is a way to prevent it?

Alcohol and tobacco advertising is not a new concept to this world. Alcohol and tobacco advertising has been going on since the mid 1900’s. During this time, alcohol and tobacco ads were on the TV almost as much as regular programs (Danna). This source is credible because the author has written many articles for the Chicago Tribune before. When alcohol and tobacco advertising first started they actually argued that smoking and drinking was beneficial for the human body. Since then, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau and many other departments have tried to put in laws and acts to help regulate the advertisement of alcohol and tobacco. For example, laws such as the "Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965”, and the

There are approximately 4,000-7,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke. Chemicals included are: nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, acetone, benzene, butane, Cadmium and DDT. The chemicals previously listed are typically found within nail polish remover, hair dye, rat poison, rubber cement, active ingredients in battery acid, embalming fluid, and materials for paving roads. Forty-three of the chemicals within a cigarette are known cancer-causing compounds, and over 400 other toxins. In addition, depending on the type of cigarette that is smoked, the effects could be even more harmful to one’s body by containing more additives and chemicals than others (Kleinman, L., M.D., & D. M., M.P.H., 2016).

Usually, on television shows or on magazine articles there has to be an advertisement promoting cigarettes. Not only does the tobacco industry encourage teenagers to start smoking, but it enforces smoking to continue well on into their adulthood.

In fact, the tobacco industry has suffered ever since antismoking advertising has begun (Johnston, p. 107). According to statistics, 4 in every 10 Americans who are in 12th grade have tried cigarettes, and 1 in 10 consider themselves current smokers. As well as, 1 in 5, 8th graders have tried cigarettes, and 1 in 16 consider themselves current smokers (Johnston, p. 107). Now that society is aware of the harms of tobacco, it is important to decrease such rates of smoking amongst youth. Not only are there commercials about the risks of cigarette smoking, but also there are commercials that promote living above the influence of all drugs, including alcohol and marijuana. Lastly, as research continues to improve, and new drugs arise it is important to keep youth educated on the risks of using such drugs. It is important to keep our youth safe from the dangers of

In our communities, the youth can easily identified any of tobacco’s product. The author, Steven Reinberg, published , Tobacco Companies Targeting Teens, Study Says, states that the tobacco product, Marlboro, is highly purchased by high school students according to usnews.com. Mr. McGoldrick states that the three brands, 90 percent is being marketed. Most companies hold their ground saying that their tobacco products are not meant to bought by youth, but somehow still managed to in our children’s hands, in his article, Tobacco Companies Targeting Teens, Study Says (steven Reinberg). According to Erin Brodwin, author of “Tobacco Companies Still Target Youth despite A Globally Treaty”, states that children all over the world can identify the tobacco brands. Not only are children picking up their ideas from television, but also from public. Children knowing which brands shows how serious the addiction can be. Seeing how easily the product being shown to the youth is another way of starting. If less smokers are seen in public, the lower the numbers will

In the article, Smoking is the leading cause, I learned that “Cigarettes are accountable for 480,00 deaths annually compared to 88,000 a year from alcohol. The enormous gap in the death toll makes it unclear as to why it is legal to smoke at eighteen but not to drink. It is very hypocritical to allow smoking and ban liquor because cigarettes are more harmful than alcohol. This is because “[T]obacco smoke contains a deadly mix of more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic. About 70 are known to cause cancer” which can be found in an article called “Smoked tobacco products”. These toxins are dispensed into the air, polluting it, and affecting the wellbeing of not only the smoker but for anyone around the smoker as well. Alcohol, on the

     Should tobacco advertising be restricted? This is a very controversial issue. There is the idea that young children that smoke started smoking because of advertisements, but there is also the idea that children start smoking for other reasons. Many big, well-known tobacco companies like RJ Reynolds are being sued for their advertisements. On Monday April 20th, 1998 the jury heard a testimony from Lynn Beasly, the marketing vice president of the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company. The courts believed that the advertisement was directed towards children under the age of 18, due to a document from the RJ Reynolds Board of Directors showing that they set a goal to increase the company's market share among 14

Cigarette advertising has changed throughout history from how it has been advertised, what is being advertised, and who the intended audience is. In the 60’s seeing a cigarette advertisement in the Sunday paper would just be like any other advertisement, but recent generations would be appalled to see such a gruesome product being publicized. The annual deaths from smoking cigarettes are increasing each year and doctors and scientist are teaming together to try and help prevent more. Realizing that advertising may be playing a role the controversy over cigarette advertising has lead to the censoring of harmful products in other public advertising which still has a lasting effect today.

Plastered all over magazines, buildings, and billboards used to be positive advertising of tobacco, encouraging people nationwide that tobacco use is fun, trendy, and completely innocuous. “More Doctors Smoke CAMELS than any other cigarette”, “More delicate in flavor, too...for those with keen, young tastes”, and “My throat is safe with Craven ‘A’... you can trust their smoothness and quality” were both notable examples of advertising that hooked the now addicted users (Lindstrom). Nowadays, although advertising has become more educational on the negative health effects of tobacco use, it is still normal to see people as young as 18 using the toxic products. However, how can it necessarily be considered ‘wrong’ if the legal age for tobacco

Each day, more than 5,200 people under the age of eighteen smoke their first cigarette, and approximately 3,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers (Youth Tobacco Smoking Rates Putting Millions At Risk Of Premature Death. n. pag.). These numbers are unusually high and are most likely due to the excessive amount of tobacco advertisement. Today in the United States tobacco companies spend more than eleven billion dollars on tobacco advertising, targeting mostly younger generations of people. Some may argue that this type of advertisement is beneficial in the U.S because it brings in billions of dollars in revenue that can be used for many different purposes. However many are concerned about young adults and

Tobacco companies have had massive public relations and campaigns to the whole wide world to influence young adults to start to smoke. By advertising, having famous people smoke, in movies, and make it look cool. Tobacco companies continue to make there presence known by targeting kids. Since the legal age of buying and using tobacco products is at 18, the age where young adults feel invincible and free, they hope they will get hook and continue to smoke all the way through there adult life’s. Since most companies know that tobacco with nicotine can have an addictive habit, they hope to attract the young adults. Tobacco companies had a monopoly with regulations up until the year 2009.

Although tobacco and alcohol products differ, they share a high level of addiction and are “among the top causes of preventable deaths in the United States” ( U.S Department of Health & Human Services, 2007 ). As stated in Controversies In Contemporary Advertising by Kim Bartel Sheehan (2014), “tobacco and alcohol advertising are probably two of the most thoroughly examined and criticized categories of all advertised products” ( p.177 ). Yet, advertisers continue to heavily invest on promoting these products considering the “total spending on wine, beer, and spirits was almost $2 billion” with another “$10 billion spent on tobacco advertising globally in 2008” ( Sheehan, 2014, p.177 ). In response to the advertisers selling efforts and ad spendings,

To make matters worse, the tobacco companies are making millions from teen smokers. Tobacco companies use advertising to manipulate both teens and adults. They present images that are hard to shake, even when you know the truth. Have you ever seen a cigarette ad where people are wrinkled, middle-aged or coughing and in the hospital dying of lung cancer? Of course not! In most ads, smokers are shown the way that teens would like to be: attractive and hip, sophisticated and elegant, or rebellious.

The simple smoke from a cigarette is more complex then it really looks. "Each time a person breaths in smoke about a million particles of very tiny complex materials are breathed in and only 20% of that is breathed out."(Hyde 1990) From these little millions of particles is the reason it causes problems for the human body. The main material in the some is nicotine. "Nicotine is an alkaloid poison found in