Tobacco Advertising : Causes And Dangers For College Students

The American College Health Association recommends that colleges and universities "Develop a strongly worded tobacco policy that reflects the best practices in tobacco prevention, cessation, and control.” More and more colleges need to push the Tobacco free

Although tobacco advertisements are banned, people still consume it. The ban started in 1971 and since then has become even more strict on the sponsoring and promotion of tobacco brand logos. Now, all tobacco ads used, dissuade users from consuming. Advertisements in general can be obnoxious and tiresome, but they are sometimes necessary for the seller to get their point across. Ads are either trying to get money from the consumer or driving to change a person’s mind positively. The main reasoning for the creation of advertisements is to persuade the viewer or audience through the evocation of ethos, pathos, and logos, to have a change of mind about the product. The ads I chose are both similar, but have different goals towards their audience.

In 2014, 24.6% of high school students reported that they used some type of tobacco product in the past 30 days (‘National Youth Tobacco Survey’). There are several factors that influence youth to begin using tobacco. Although it is clear that peer pressure can initiate smoking, multiple studies find that tobacco marketing causes an increase in youth tobacco use.

At an early age, most people learn the health risk of smoking and how it affects your body. Smoking is not hidden from anyone the way cookies are hidden from users. People still have the choice to smoke or not to smoke. The health risk are known, yet people still smoke. The warning labels are required to be visible on cigarette packages even though the health risk are well known.

In the United States today, more than forty six million Americans are addicted to cigarettes. More people have died due to cigarette smoking than from narcotic drugs, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War combined (Bailey 1). The annual death toll for cigarette smoking is more than four-hundred thousand Americans a year, and is the number-one preventable cause of death in the United States. If Americans are aware of the lethal effects of smoking, why is it still so popular? Guy Smith, a Phillip Morris Tobacco Company executive, claims that their research shows that advertising is the top reason people start smoking (Bailey 34). Most people will argue that this is not true because the do not like to be “sold” and

During the early 20th century our great nation established an amendment, due to a national temperance movement, many believed would reduce recklessness, destructive behavior, social issues, improve the health of America, etc. The 18th amendment brought an era of Prohibition which led to a dramatic decrease on alcohol related deaths, however it led to organized secret crimes and the country ratified the amendment with the 21st amendment. Also prominently during this time women were changing to the independent and “sexy” life style thus being persuaded by tobacco companies on how smoking makes them thinner and empowered. Nevertheless throughout the 20th century health problems were arise due to smoking. Alcohol and tobacco advertisements should

The four basic dimensions of media literacy allows viewers to fully understand the operation and messages found in mass communications within the media industry. The cognitive dimension is how viewer intellectually process information that is portrayed to them. The emotional dimension helps viewers understand the feelings that go along with the message. The aesthetic dimension is the viewer’s interpretation of content through a artistic or critical point of view. The moral dimension allows viewers understand the values and the message of the media.

Advertising for tobacco is another source that cause teenagers smoke and adults smoke. Recently, tobacco companies have found new ways to promote their products to youth. They support their sporting events, concerts and movie. Many people favor idols or stars smoke in the movies and they seems very cool. And Teenagers are curious about imitation. Smoke containing nicotine acts as a stimulant to the brain. Nicotine in the bloodstream acts to make the smoker feel calm. In fact, nicotine is a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or suspected to cause cancer. What is more, secondhand smoke can be harmful in many ways and it ruins thousands of non-smoking people, children's health. The US Surgeon General and the US Food and Drug Administration are among those who have examined the evidence and concluded that tobacco advertising does increase overall consumption. If we ban adverts on tobacco products, they will gradually lose their appeal, because they won't symbolize anything "cool", "smart" or "amazing". Tobacco products will become ordinary consumption goods and thus the number of young people who take up smoking in order to "be somebody" will decrease.

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.

Though tobacco advertising has been monitered in the media, it still directly a cause for youth today to begin smoking and using tobacco products. The history of media's glorification of smoking is something of which cannot be erased and it is something impossible to shelter children from. Children's minds are easily manipulated and with smoking still shown in movies, its simple to influence their decisions and give off the wrong impressions on smoking. Stores even place ads for cigarettes at a level where young children cannot see them but that doesn't stop them from vieweing ads on televisions, magazines, or again from movies they are allowed to watch. Tobacco companies pay movie industries and directors to have their products shown in a movie which as a result both companies would recieve a lump amount of money for product endourcing.(Stanton ) It's easy for movie producers to agree to this because they'd end up with a lot of money just to simply have a box of cigaettes with the logo showing on table which seems harmless but it's not.

Young teens are trying to fit in or are surrounded by the wrong crowd. They later become obsessed with it. Nicotine is a highly addictive and when it enters into the brain, it will makes your brain think it is at equilibrium. It will help you relax, reduce stress, and minimize anxiety.

This problem of creating a trendy stylish image of cigarettes are hurting many people by recruiting new young smokers from all around the world, winning over sales due to the false image and then addiction. Third world countries are hurt the most by this unethical way of advertising because they don’t have money for this extra expense that they now need due to addiction. Critics claim that sophisticated promotions in a unsophisticated societies entice people who cannot afford the necessities of life to spend money on luxury- and a dangerous one at that. Every cigarette manufacturer is in the image business, and tobacco companies say their promotional slant is both reasonable and common. They point out that in the Third World a lot of people cannot understand what is written in the ads anyway, so the ads zero in on the more understandable visual image. Due to actions such as this and the negative effect it has on people economically and physically, this is a good example of how the tobacco industry is unethical.

Smoking tobacco has been a part of American culture since its very conception. Throughout our history, tobacco has been advertised as a simple pleasure for those who seek it out. Whether you are sitting on the porch with a couple of friends or in a dimly lit jazz club, tobacco ads give off a false sense of comfort, power, and success. Until around the mid-1900’s, smoking cigarettes was not considered unhealthy. It was only later that the public realize the detrimental health consequences that came with smoking tobacco. To spread this information, specific advertisements were aired to help inform the public of the dangers of smoking. While these ads have changed over time, the same message and warning still remains evident.

Even though they blame its success on peer pressure the companies internal documents show otherwise. (2.a) Most of the evidence was industry studies on new smokers and how to attract them. One expert testimony showed that 90 % of six-year-olds recognized the popular characters on cigarette packs like Joe camel to be as familiar as Mickey Mouse and other childhood heroes. (3) Media advertising has a very subtle yet powerful effect on people and the tobacco companies have taken full advantage of its tools.

Some imperative facts one should look into are legal ages, teen rights and opinions, how companies sucker in people with inner issues to buy their products, and companies who have attempted to sell to adolescents. First of all, tobacco products or alcohol should not be publicly advertise to people who are not of legal age to purchase or use ,merchandise. It is common sense to know the legal drinking and smoking ages in America. There are obviously understandable reasons as to why the age limits are what they are. In 1993, to “prevent nicotine addiction in