A do-or-die target audience Jane Slaughter
	The tobacco industry may have gotten its biggest boost in years from the movie Titanic. It was probably historically accurate to show Leonardo di Caprio's character puffing away, and Kate Winslet using cigarettes to defy her mother. But the message this blockbuster sent, that smoking equals freedom, must have gladdened the hearts of Philip Morris marketing execs. Every day, 3,000 American kids become daily smokers. That's not "3,000 kids take a puff for the first time." (That figure is 6,000.) It means that 3,000 girls and boys under 18--more than a million a year--become regular smokers, well on their way to addiction. Anti-smoking activists argue that a big part of the reason teenagers smoke is that tobacco companies aggressively market directly to kids. Using the unyielding logic of capitalism, the companies have to do so: They need replacements for their current customers, who either quit or die. Since practically no one over the age of 18 takes up smoking (almost 90 percent of adult smokers began at or before that age), teenagers are cigarette companies' do-or-die target audience. It appears to be working. While adult smoking has generally been decreasing, over the past 10 years the number of kids under 18 who become daily smokers each year has increased by over half a million, a greater than 70 percent increase. Thirty-six percent of high school students smoke (as compared to 25 percent of adults), and 16 percent of high school boys use smokeless tobacco. Over 250 million packs of cigarettes are illegally sold to kids each year. If current trends continue, almost a third of these underage smokers--five million people--will ultimately die from tobacco-related causes. Of course, kids aren't thinking about "ultimately." Who's cool today looms far larger. The tobacco companies know this and exploit it to the max. But isn't the industry on the run? What about that multi-billion-dollar settlement they signed last year? In some senses, yes, the industry is on the defensive, but Philip Morris, RJR and Brown and Williamson still hold enormous influence in politics--and enormous influence on kids' perceptions. In 1996, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued strong rules to restrict marketing of tobacco and young people's access to it. But the industry blocked most of those rules through court challenges. (The only FDA rule now in effect establishes 18 as the nationwide age for purchasing tobacco and requires retailers to check photo I.D. of anyone who appears younger than 27.) In 1998, the industry succeeded in defeating the McCain bill, which would have subjected tobacco to FDA regulation. At the end of last year, 46 states signed an agreement with the tobacco industry, to settle lawsuits that had been brought by states' attorneys general. Although the amount of money the companies will have to pay sounds large--$206 billion between now and 2025--apparently they can afford it; none is threatening bankruptcy. The industry spends $5.1 billion a year on marketing and advertising to increase cigarette consumption. The settlement, which will not fully take effect for months, does prohibit some of the tobacco companies' favorite ploys such as billboard ads; brand-name sponsorship for concerts, football, hockey, baseball, soccer, or events where contestants are under 18; free giveaways of cigarettes or spit (smokeless) tobacco products; sales or giveaways of merchandise, such as caps, T-shirts or backpacks, that carry tobacco brands or logo (30 percent of 12-17 year-olds, both smokers and nonsmokers, own at least one tobacco promotional item). The settlement fails to prohibit, however, some important marketing strategies: Selling cigarettes in vending machines and self-serve displays (Some anti-smoking advocates argue that marketers like self-serve displays because they encourage kids to shoplift.); Displaying advertising where tobacco is sold and at sponsored events; Using human images that appeal to kids, such as the Marlboro man (cartoons are banned--no more Joe Camel); Advertising in newspapers and magazines, including ones with large youth audiences such as Sports Illustrated and Car and Driver; Using cigarette brand names to sponsor auto racing and rodeos, even when televised. The FDA rules would have prohibited these tactics, and also: Prohibited the sale of single or loose cigarettes and required packages to contain at least 20; Limited all outdoor and all point-of-sale advertising to black-and-white text only; Limited tobacco ads to black-and-white print only, in publications that have more than two million readers, or 15 percent of their total readership, under 18 years of age. Even if the more severe restrictions on advertising someday go into effect--anti-smoking groups are pushing for new legislation this year--will they really reduce teen smoking? The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids cites a study published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which concluded that teens are more likely to be influenced to smoke by advertising than they are by peer pressure. The researchers called up kids who said they'd never taken a puff, and then matched up those kids' recognition of cigarette ads, their reports of smoking among their peers, and their willingness to say they might try a cigarette some day. The study is not terribly convincing. A telephone survey where Mom and Dad might be listening? What kid won't at least try it once? But if this attempt at scientific proof is not persuasive, the sales evidence is: Eighty-six percent of kids who smoke prefer Marlboro, Camel and Newport--the three most heavily advertised brands--while only about a third of adult smokers choose these brands. Marlboro, the biggest advertiser, takes almost 60 percent of the youth market, but only a quarter of the adult market. One study showed kids to be three times as sensitive as adults to cigarette advertising. Most of the nonsmokers in the survey cited above could name a "favorite" ad. Between 1989 and 1993, when advertising for the new Joe Camel campaign jumped from $27 million to $43 million, Camel's share among kids increased by more than 50 percent, while adults showed no switch to Camels. A 1994 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association documented a rapid and unprecedented increase in the smoking initiation rate of adolescent girls in the late 1960s, after the launch of women's cigarette brands like Virginia Slims. The smokeless tobacco people have successfully turned "chaw" into a product whose main market is young men rather than old ones. They did this partly through introducing "starter products." "Cherry Skoal is for somebody who likes the taste of candy, if you know what I'm saying," said a former U.S. Tobacco sales rep. Some middle-school kids in New Jersey have produced a sophisticated analysis of cigarette ads. On the C.O.S.T. (Children Opposed to Smoking Tobacco) website, they reproduce an ad for Kool, which shows a girl seated behind a guy on a motorcycle. Surely the guy is cool; "after all, he's on a motorcycle. ... But notice how his picture is faded out. Doesn't that signal he's on the Ôway out' as far as this girl is concerned? Why is she ignoring him? The people at Brown and Williamson would like you to believe it's because he doesn't smoke. Notice that her eyes are on the guy with the cigarette." Kool is running a whole series of print and billboard ads with this theme. Note that the message goes beyond "girls want guys who smoke" to the even more insidious "girls don't want boys who don't smoke." The makers of Misty cigarettes use the slogan "Slim and Sassy"--what two qualities could possibly appeal more to teenage girls? In a Virginia Slims ad, a very confident-looking young woman is leading a young man by the hand. "Think about it," argue the kids from COST. "When a woman smokes, she gives up her sense of independence, because she becomes dependent on nicotine." The industry fights any restrictions on advertising tooth and nail. An internal Philip Morris document from 1981 says, "Today's teenager is tomorrow's potential regular customer, and the overwhelming majority of smokers first begin to smoke while still in their teens ... The smoking patterns of teenagers are particularly important to Philip Morris." Smoking can do more than kill you Eric Lindblom of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids says a multi-faceted approach is needed to keep kids from picking up the habit. "It's much more complicated than telling them Ôsmoking will kill you,'" he acknowledges. "You need to tell them the immediate health and cosmetic and social impacts. "You also need to make tobacco harder to get, at higher prices. The more inconvenient you make it, the more likely smokers are to stop. Smokefree workplaces have a good impact, for example. "All these things that work somewhat work a lot more powerfully when they're combined." The Campaign is asking concerned parents to do two things this year: First, pressure your state legislators and governor to allocate a hefty portion of the tobacco settlement money for smoking prevention programs. Polls show that most people want at least half this windfall to go for anti-smoking programs, but state governments may use it for whatever they choose. Second, lobby Congress to designate nicotine a drug and therefore cigarettes, as a drug-delivery device, under the jurisdiction of the FDA. For Children Opposed to Smoking Tobacco, contact Mary E. Volz School, 509 W. 3rd Ave., Runnemede, NJ 08078 or http://www.costkids.org For The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, call 1 800 284-KIDS or http://www.tobaccofreekids.org Writer Jane Slaughter lives in Detroit, Michigan.<Janesla@aol.com> Photo: Loren Santoq, Impact Visuals Back to top Back to current issue