UICC Tobacco Control Fact Sheet 1

The Case for Banning Advertising and Promotion of Tobacco

The power of advertising

• Ads and other promotional activities encourage young people to start smoking, and reinforce the habit among those who already smoke. Research suggests that even very young children are profoundly influenced by cigarette advertising.

• Children as young as 6 clearly associate the John Player Special and Marlboro brands with excitement and fast cars. These associations are triggered by simple ads which make no mention of motor racing. Many children assign particular qualities to smoking certain brands, such as toughness, glamour, or "being cool".

• When shown an advertisement for "JPS Grand Prix Holidays" which did not mention cigarettes or carry a Government Health Warning, 91% of 12-16 year-olds said it advertised cigarettes.

• Children aged 10-12 who approve of cigarette advertising are twice as likely to become smokers within a year as children who disapprove of it.

• Under-age smokers pay more attention to cigarette ads, and get more pleasure and reward from them, than non-smokers. They are also consistently better at recognizing and recalling cigarette ads, even when the ads do not show brand names. Children who smoke but who do not approve of ads are more likely to quit. An important role of advertising is recognized to be to reassure existing customers that they have made a wise choice.

Cartoon characters

The use of cartoon characters is proving a highly successful marketing stratagem.

• In the US, Camel cigarettes have been advertised using a large camel character called Joe Camel, or "Old Joe". He appears as a player in a band, always with women nearby. Tee-shirts and other merchandise feature his picture. Recognition and popularity of the camel figure peak in the adolescent age group. Before the launch of the campaign in 1988, Camel brand cigarettes were smoked by less than 1% of under-18 smokers. By 1990, that figure had risen to 33%. Nearly one-third of 3-year-olds correctly identified "Old Joe" as representing cigarettes. As many 6-year-olds recognized Old Joe as recognized Mickey Mouse. 94% of all secondary school pupils recognized it, compared to only 58% adults over 21.

Expenditure

There is a close fit between promotional expenditure and under-age brand preferences. Children, not adults, consistently buy the most heavily advertised brands.

Avoiding ad bans

Cigarette companies have known for years that advertising their brands would become increasingly difficult. Many have suspected that a total ban was "only a matter of time".

In 1979, British American Tobacco circulated a memo stating:

"Opportunities should be explored … so as to find non-tobacco products and other services which can be used to communicate the brand or house name, together with their essential visual identifiers ... The principle is to ensure that tobacco lines can be effectively publicized when all direct forms of communication are denied."

The loss of TV advertising in a number of countries was a particular blow, since TV reaches millions of viewers - far more than all the other mass media put together (e.g. billboards, cinema, radio, newspapers and magazines).

Sports sponsorship

Sponsorship of sports and other events with guaranteed TV coverage is especially important. Costs are high, yet compared to costs of advertising products in the normal way, sponsorship is in fact quite "cheap".

Sponsors of the entire event ("billing"). Hence Marlboro Rally, Embassy World Professional Snooker, etc.

Seen at the event. Billboards are placed at key playing positions where the camera will linger ("camera sightlines"), such as behind corner flags, playing pitches, etc.

Heard at the event. The companies receive regular mentions or "plugs" in the commentary.

Competing in the event. Competitors, equipment, racing cars, team vehicles, mechanics and other assistants etc. in brand colours, with logos and other "visual identifiers" clearly evident.

Gitanes, Camel, and Marlboro all sponsor Formula One motor racing teams. Marlboro spends at least £30 million a year on backing the McLaren team, and a further £12 million paying Ferrari drivers' salaries. Its reward is that the majority of teenagers associate its name with motor sport.

Sponsoring music events

Music and dance sponsorship is used extensively in some parts of the world. In the UK, both Marlboro and Silk Cut have travelling disco roadshows. A common promotional strategy at sponsored discos is for young women dressed in brand colours to distribute free cigarettes, and to offer full packs in exchange for half-empty ones of another brand.

In the UK for example, Marlboro promotes a Midnite Lights Disco Tour, which includes a tour bus, DJ and dance team. It also sponsors the Marlboro Lights Disc Jockey of the Year.

New Markets

Cigarette companies are particularly attentive to the use of music in the huge markets now opening up in Eastern Europe and Asia.

Philip Morris, makers of the US top-selling brand Marlboro, has sponsored televised rock concerts in e.g. Budapest, Hungary. Young women in Marlboro suits dispensed free samples of Marlboro cigarettes, while concert-goers who agreed to smoke the cigarettes received a complimentary pair of "designer Marlboro sunglasses". In Beijing, China, they have sponsored a "Marlboro American Music Hour", which features songs by Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.

RJ Reynolds, makers of Camel and Salem cigarettes, sponsored pop videos twice a day on Hong Kong TV. A televised Madonna concert became the Salem Madonna Concert (the company superimposed the Salem logo over the concert introduction). In China, RJ Reynolds sponsored live concerts in a Canton disco, paying the fees of performers and handing out free cigarettes.

Product placement in films

Films - in the cinema, on video and TV - are an increasingly important channel of cigarette promotion. A favoured tactic is "product placement".

• Companies will pay simply for their brandname to be seen in focus on a billboard or passing truck. Better if there's a packshot (the actual pack is shown lying around in focus on the table, say). Better still, have a star actually light up from a clearly identifiable pack. Best of all (and hence costing the most money) is to have the star not only light up, but talk about the brand.
• Marlboro feature in "Crocodile Dundee",
  "Children of a Lesser God", "Tin Men", "White Knights", "Superman II", "Baby", "Crimes of the Heart", "Risky Business".
• Camel feature in "Desperately Seeking Susan", "Two of a Kind", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".
• "Beverley Hills Cop": Eddie Murphy holds up a pack of Lucky Strike and says: "These cigarettes are very popular with the children". He goes on to say he personally prefers king-size Kents.
• "Batteries Not Included": a cute little spaceship is fitted with a built-in cigarette lighter; two cute little old folks smoke Salem cigarettes.
• "Crimes of the Heart": Jessica Lange chainsmokes Marlboro Lights.
• "Who Framed Roger Rabbit": Betty Boop offers the detective Camels. Lucky Strike ads feature prominently throughout.
• "Superman II": Philip Morris paid £25,000 to have Marlboro featured. In the film - but not in the comic book, where strict controls have operated for many years - Lois Lane is depicted as a smoker.
• "Supergirl": £18,000 paid to show Eve cigarettes.
• In the James Bond movie "Licence to Kill": £200,000 paid for featuring Lark cigarettes.
• "Big": the heroine smokes long slim cigarettes. A bus passes by with an ad for Virginia Slims.

Country	Date of advertising ban	Drop in consumption
Norway	1975	9%
Finland	1977	6.7%
Canada	1989	4%
New Zealand	1990	5.5%

As the chart above shows, countries which have banned tobacco advertising have experienced a significant fall in tobacco consumption.

UICC Recommendation

The International Union Against Cancer in common with the
World Health Organization and leading health authorities throughout the world urge all countries to ban all forms of advertising and promotion including sponsorship and other forms of indirect advertising.

References

1. "Tobacco advertising - the case for a ban." London, Action on Smoking and Health, 1991
2. "From the Billboard to the Playground." London, Cancer Research Campaign, 1991
3. "Reinforcing effects of cigarette advertising on under-age smoking." Aitken, PP et al. British Journal of Addiction 1990, 399-412

Tobacco and Cancer Programme International Union Against Cancer 3, Rue du Conseil-Général, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: (4122) 809 1830, Fax: (4122) 809 1810 E-mail: tobacco-control@globalink.org | Tobacco and Cancer Programme