What Psychological Tactics do Tobacco Advertisers Use to Get Children to Buy their Products?

Tobacco advertisers want to maximize their profits by gaining life-long customers. So they target children in their advertisements to get them hooked on cigarettes as early as possible in hopes that they will be loyal customers for the remainder of their lives. Tobacco advertising has had many proven psychological effects on children, but this section will first uncover the many psychological tactics used by these advertisers to get children to buy their products.

Tobacco advertisers use different identity tactics to influence young people by showing them that smoking is “cool.” Camel cigarettes did this with the use of a cartoon character in the 1990’s that they called Joe Camel (West, 2002). The Children Now Organization (CNO) (1998) states that a study found that twice as many children than adults associated Joe Camel with Camel cigarettes and that these ads were attractive.
Sponsorship, another identity tactic, according to the Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada Organization (PSFC) (2001) creates an association between an exiting, fun event with the sponsoring company. In this way sponsorship can be a powerful way of getting children to identify with tobacco products, especially since most of these sponsored events use celebrities that children identify with. Some celebrity events outright influence children to buy cigarettes. In Taiwan, RJR Salem agents arranged a concert by teen idol Hsow-Yu Chang. The only accepted admission to this event was five empty packs of Salem’s cigarettes, and ten empty packs to receive a sweatshirt (Hammer, 2001). Sponsorship has also been a way for tobacco advertisers to advertise their products and remain within the boundaries set by tobacco advertisement bans. RJR Salem had sponsored a live concert by Paula Abdul in Seoul, and a televised concert by Madonna in Hong-Kong, two places where television ads for tobacco are supposed to be banned (Hammer, 2001).

Another tactic that tobacco advertisers use is connecting cigarettes to independence and resisting authority. It is associated with growing-up, taking risks, and being cool, things that children crave as they grow-up (Hammer, 2001). Kilbourne (2000) concurs by pointing out that tobacco advertising promotes attitudes and values as well as products. She further discusses that an example of this promotion of certain values is when Kent cigarette ads used the slogan “the experience you seek”. This advertisement instills in children a value of being experienced by trying Kent cigarettes. This technique is helpful when attempting to change children’s attitudes towards cigarettes because they may begin to value Kent cigarettes as a necessary growth experience.

Social learning theory suggests that “repeated exposure to modeled behavior can result in behavioral changes in lifestyle” (Kilbourne, 2000). Tobacco advertisers are aware of this, and they use this technique by showing cigarette smoking in different media so as to make smoking appear to be a normal social event. CNO (1998) shows this by discussing that half of the top grossing films released between 1990 and 1995, as found by a University of California study, contained scenes in which someone smoked; a rise of 29% from the 1970’s. The Committee on Communications (1995) adds that this repeated exposure technique has even been used in almost all PG-13 rated movies and even in G-rated movies such as Pinocchio and the Little Mermaid.

Tobacco advertisers also use gender stereotypes in ads that target children. Children, who learn early in their lives about what society expects a man or a woman to be, want to live up to these societal expectations. Tobacco advertisers use this vulnerability in creating ads that use these societal pressures. Hoek and Sheppard (1990) analyze this in their study by stating that boy-oriented ads tend to have more aggressive behaviors and higher activity levels, whereas girl-oriented ads tend to have less activity and low levels of aggression. In addition, the girl-oriented ads focus on themes of popularity and beauty. Kilbourne (2001) elaborates on this idea by analyzing that tobacco advertisements aimed at girls promote tobacco use as a form of weight control. She uses the examples of a Virginia Slim ad which shows very thin models and reads, “more than just a sleek shape,” and the Capri cigarette ad that reads, “the slimmest slim in town.” Kilbourne goes on to say that tobacco ads aimed at boys show young guys being adventurous and acting very “macho.” These adventure themes appear to be used by Marlboro in ads that they aim at boys. Marlboro uses an adventure team consisting of rock climbers, bike racers, and car racers who sport Marlboro gear and appear to be users of the cigarette brand (Hammer, 2001).

These psychological techniques used by tobacco advertiser’s play on children’s mental and emotional development. They understand and use behavioral and learning theories to persuade children to try their highly addictive product. Tobacco advertisers also use cultural pressures to sell their product by creating an image of a product that will fulfill some of children’s social needs. People who criticize the tobacco industry do so because they claim that the image created of the product does not match the true product.