Today, there are laws against making false accusations about tobacco products in advertisements. So, now the tobacco industry uses more subtle approaches to sell their products. These approaches involved advertisers studying how people think. This is when they began to focus more on psychological tactics to influence new smokers (Kilbourne, 2000).

Wade Hampton’s (as mentioned above) choice to try cigarettes at such a young age is a decision that many others have made before they may fully understand what they are getting themselves into. Many young people start smoking around the same age that he did (and even younger) and are hooked on cigarettes by the time that they are just old enough to smoke legally. Many critics of tobacco advertisers feel that these children begin to smoke because advertisers exploit their lack of experience and knowledge. They claim that advertising induces the demand for tobacco use amongst young people and that the tobacco industry purposely targets children as their most promising market.

All of this points to a need to carefully analyze tobacco advertising and its psychological effects on children. To analyze this issue, this paper will first consider and investigate the following questions:
1. How do tobacco advertisers apply behavioral learning principles in ads?
2. What psychological tactics do tobacco advertisers use to get children to buy their products?
3. Are the psychological tactics used in tobacco ads effective in getting children to purchase their products?