Unit 2:
Cigarette Advertising

Title Page

Introduction

Unit 1

Unit 2
• Cigarette Advertising

• Tobacco & Youth

• Analyzing Assorted Tobacco Advertisement

• Reading & Writing Activities: Distinguishing Facts From Opinions

Unit 3

Unit 4

Unit 5

Unit 6

Bibliography

Tobacco & Youth

The purpose of cigarette ads and promotions is to make sure smokers keep smoking, get people who quit to start smoking again and increase the number of cigarettes people smoke each day. Most importantly, cigarette ads and promotions encourage young people to start smoking. Many ads are specially made to attract teens, women, and Blacks. The advertisements are very successful. According to U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, every day 3,000 teens smoke their first cigarette. In the U.S. 3 million people between the ages of 13 and 19 smoke cigarettes. The average age when a smoker tries his/her first cigarette is 14.5 years old. R.J. Reynold's advertises Camel cigarettes with the cartoon figure "Joe Camel." These ads have been very popular with young people. Since Joe Camel ads were first introduced, cigarette sales to youth have increased from 6 million to 476 million dollars.

Philip Morris' Marlboro cowboy ads, first created in 1954, also attract young people. These ads show a tough or macho, independent cowboy. A sad fact is that one of the cowboys pictured in Marlboro ads, Wayne McLaren, died of lung cancer. He died in 1992 after smoking for 25 years. Still about half of all youth smoke Marlboros.