Mike Basil's tobacco advertising page

TOBACCO ADVERTISING

I believe that one of the products which can reveal how and when media can have effects is the sale of tobacco. Although tobacco has a long history of use, the sale of commercially produced cigarettes only started in the 1930s. A vigorous campaigns of advertising and promotion ensued. As a result, people around the world spend billions of dollars to buy a product that has no real value and only harms their health. Even after doctors and other public health officials have exposed the dangers in every form of tobacco (cigarettes, chew, snuff, cigars, and some other devices that have yet to be invented), people continue to use tobacco.

Of course one of the reasons people use tobacco is that it is addictive. That explains continued use. But what gets people to start? Various forms of sales promotion and effective marketing techniques are the answer. This, of course, includes tobacco advertising.

There are general theories of persuasion and campaigns. Many of these have evolved from theories of psychology, which provides insights into human action and motivation. But although we have considerable data to show that advertising does work to increase demand, we really have limited knowledge or theories about how cigarette advertising gets people to smoke. This area deserves much more study. I am currently involved in revealing the strategies that are used in cigarette advertising in hopes of developing a general theory of how advertising works.

So far it is clear that:

1. Advertising makes use of targeting to develop appropriate messages for each segment of the population. They use models that are appropriate for each group, carefully matching the race of the model and the depicted rewards. For more information see:

Basil, M. D., Schooler, C., Altman, D. G., Slater, M., Albright, C. L., & Maccoby, N. (1991). How cigarettes are advertised in magazines: Special messages for special markets. Health Communication, 3, 75-91.

Altman, D. G., Schooler, C. & Basil, M. D. (1991). Alcohol and cigarette advertising on billboards. Health Education Research, 6, 487-490.

Schooler, C., Basil, M. D., & Altman, D. G. (1996). Alcohol and cigarette advertising on billboards: Targeting with social cues. Health Communication, 8, 109-129.

2. The tobacco makes use of a variety of strategies to work special placements into films and television to circumvent federal rules an their own voluntary restrictions (which they are not upholding). For more information, see:

Basil, M. D. (1997). The danger of cigarette "special placements" in film and television. Health Communication, 9, 191-198.

3. The tobacco industry tries to prevent people from quitting. For more information, see:

Basil, M. D., Basil, D. Z., & Schooler, C. (2000). Cigarette advertising to counter New Year's resolutions. Journal of Health Communication, 5, 161-174.

4. Tobacco advertising makes tobacco use look more common that it is, and that the industry corrupts our thinking into believing that there is some "right" for people to smoke, pollute the air, and harm involuntary smokers. For more information, see:

Basil, M. D. (1996). Tobacco: Co-opting our public health. Journal of Health Communication, 1, 399-413.

Basil, M. D. (1997, May). Cigarette advertising and biases in estimates of smoking prevalence. Paper presented to the International Communication Association, Montreal, CANADA.

For more information on the tobacco issue, I recommend these sites: