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Finding the Kool Mixx: How Brown and Williamson used music marketing to sell cigarettes
Abstract
To describe the history of Kool's music-themed promotions and analyse the role that music played in the promotion of the brand.
Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents, legal documents, and promotional materials.
Brown & Williamson started Kool sponsorship of musical events in 1975 with Kool Jazz concerts. Music was considered to be an effective marketing tool because: (1) music helped consumers make emotional connections with the brand; (2) music concerts were effective for targeted marketing; (3) music tied together an integrated marketing campaign; and (4) music had potential to appeal widely to a young audience. Brown & Williamson's first music campaigns successfully targeted young African-American male audiences. Subsequent campaigns were less effective, exploring different types of music to achieve a broader young adult appeal.
This case study suggests Brown & Williamson used music most successfully for targeted marketing, but they failed to develop a wider audience using music because their attempts lacked consistency with the Kool brand's established identity. The 2004 "Kool Mixx" campaign both returned to Brown & Williamson's historic practice targeting young African-American males, and also exploited a musical genre with much more potential to bring Kool more universal appeal, as hip-hop music is increasingly popular among diverse audiences. Tobacco control efforts led by African-American community activists to oppose these marketing strategies should continue; expanding these coalitions to include the hip-hop community may further increase their effectiveness.
... African Americans Several analyses describe the tobacco industry's history of targeting AAs with menthol cigarette marketing and donations to AA leadership organizations to improve its reputation in these communities [9][10][11][12][13][14] . Menthol cigarettes were marketed to AAs using culturally targeted messaging and images, implying potential healthful effects of menthol, building on cultural perceptions of mint as medicinal, and creating stronger menthol-flavoured cigarettes appealing to the taste preference of AA smokers 9,10,15,16 . Specific brands such as Newport and Kool targeted promotions to the AA community by featuring hip-hop culture and music and by placing menthol ads in AA magazines 9,14,16 . ...
... Menthol cigarettes were marketed to AAs using culturally targeted messaging and images, implying potential healthful effects of menthol, building on cultural perceptions of mint as medicinal, and creating stronger menthol-flavoured cigarettes appealing to the taste preference of AA smokers 9,10,15,16 . Specific brands such as Newport and Kool targeted promotions to the AA community by featuring hip-hop culture and music and by placing menthol ads in AA magazines 9,14,16 . One of these marketing campaigns, Kool MIXX, was found to have violated the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998, which restricted targeted-marketing to youth 16 . ...
... Specific brands such as Newport and Kool targeted promotions to the AA community by featuring hip-hop culture and music and by placing menthol ads in AA magazines 9,14,16 . One of these marketing campaigns, Kool MIXX, was found to have violated the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998, which restricted targeted-marketing to youth 16 . Tobacco advertisements were more prevalent in AA neighbourhoods 17,18 , at stores in AA neighbourhoods [18][19][20][21] , near schools with more AA students 22 , and in AA newspapers 23 and magazines 14,24,25 . ...
Introduction
We reviewed research literature on pro-tobacco marketing
or anti-tobacco campaigns targeting eight vulnerable populations to
determine key findings and research gaps. Results can inform tobacco
policy and control efforts and the design of public education campaigns
for these groups.
Methods
Five journal databases in medicine, communication, and science,
were used to identify 8877 peer-reviewed, original articles in English,
published in the period 2004–2018. There were 146 articles that met
inclusion criteria on pro-tobacco marketing or anti-tobacco campaigns
aimed at eight US groups: women of reproductive age, racial/ethnic
minority groups (African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Pacific
Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native), Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/
Transgender (LGBT) populations, groups with low socioeconomic status,
rural/inner city residents, military/veterans, and people with mental health
or medical co-morbidities. We summarized the number of articles for
each population, type of tobacco, and pro-tobacco or anti-tobacco focus.
Narrative summaries were organized by population and by pro-tobacco
or anti-tobacco focus, with key strategies and gaps by group.
Results
There were more studies on pro-tobacco marketing rather than
anti-tobacco campaigns, and on cigarettes rather than other tobacco
products. Major gaps included studies on Asian Americans, American
Indian/Alaska Natives, pregnant women, LGBT populations, and those
with mental health or medical co-morbidities. Gaps related to tobacco
products were found for hookah, snus, and pipe/roll-your-own tobacco
in the pro-tobacco studies, and for all products except cigarettes in antitobacco
studies. Common tobacco industry methods used were tailoring
of product and package design and messages that were used to reach and
appeal to different sociodemographic groups. Studies varied by research
design making it difficult to compare results.
Conclusions
We found major research gaps for specific groups and tobacco
products. Public education campaigns need a stronger foundation in
empirical studies focused on these populations. Research and practice
would benefit from studies that permit comparisons across studies.
... 38 In addition to regulation of claims, the FDA has the authority to enact additional marketing restrictions, as has been done for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. For example, entertainment and sponsorship events, marketing tactics used by the tobacco industry and known to generate new users, particularly younger people, 39 were banned for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, but not other tobacco products, including cigars. 40 Evidence of these types of marketing tactics may help inform future regulatory efforts. ...
... 43 Entertainment and sponsorship events have been long-documented as a marketing tactic used by the tobacco industry to generate new users, particularly younger people. 39 Sponsored events are banned for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, but have not been expanded to cigar products. 40 An expansion of this ban to cigar products presents an opportunity to change the way cigarillos are marketed on social media-a substantial portion of the posts in this sample (41.8%) featured sponsored concerts and events. ...
Introduction
Tobacco marketing includes text and visual content, which conveys important meaning to consumers and influences use. Little is known about the marketing tactics used by a popular brand of cigarillos on social media to promote their products, including their visual design.
Methods
A content analysis was conducted to analyze text and visuals for all posts on Swisher Sweets’ official Instagram account from Jan 23 2013 –Feb 28 2020. We assessed product depictions (e.g., warnings, smoking cues), presence of FDA-prohibited or potentially misleading claims (e.g., lower risk, organic), marketing tactics (e.g., celebrities, selling propositions), flavors, and demographic representation.
Results
We coded 1402 posts. Smoking cues (e.g., images of people smoking, product imagery) were in 764 posts (54.5%), and a warning appeared in 690 (49.2%) posts, but obscured in 29.4% of those instances (n=203). No posts included FDA-prohibited claims, but some potentially misleading language was identified, including the use of words or visual depictions of smooth (n=254, 18.1%) and quality/well-made (n=239, 17%). Marketing tactics such as scarcity (n=159, 11.3%), event promotion (n=586, 41.8%), and alcohol depictions (n=171, 12.2%) were common, and flavor names appeared in 598 posts (42.7%). People depicted were often young adults (n=709, 50.6%), Black/African American (n=549, 39.2%), and in groups (n=473, 33.7%).
Conclusions
Both text and visuals are used to market Swisher Sweets on their Instagram account. Using social images of young adults, especially Black individuals, signals the intended use of the product. These images of visual-based social media may influence appeal, glamorization, and normalization of cigarillo smoking among vulnerable populations.
Implications
Tobacco marketing, including from popular cigarillo brands like Swisher Sweets, is widely used to influence consumer perceptions and behavior. Social media marketing includes text and visual, both of which increase product appeal and encourage use. Visual-based social media from the industry itself have been understudied, particularly for cigarillos. This study characterizes the ways in which Swisher Sweets uses text and visuals to market their products through their Instagram account, including smoking cues, potentially misleading language, use of celebrity endorsers, and promotion and sponsorship of events.
... Participants also mentioned pervasive cigar product placements surrounding popular rappers and hip-hop artists. Sponsorships of artists and events have been a consistent element of the tobacco industry's decades-long efforts to target Black young adults, often with specific products [39,40]. Modern cigarillo manufacturers' forays into the hip-hop industry, such as the Backwoods promotions, rap battle sponsorships by the Al Capone brand, and the ongoing Swisher Sweets Artist Project, are reminiscent of earlier menthol cigarette marketing campaigns that targeted young Black males in the jazz and hip-hop scenes [39][40][41]. ...
... Sponsorships of artists and events have been a consistent element of the tobacco industry's decades-long efforts to target Black young adults, often with specific products [39,40]. Modern cigarillo manufacturers' forays into the hip-hop industry, such as the Backwoods promotions, rap battle sponsorships by the Al Capone brand, and the ongoing Swisher Sweets Artist Project, are reminiscent of earlier menthol cigarette marketing campaigns that targeted young Black males in the jazz and hip-hop scenes [39][40][41]. Black young adults connected community norms of cigar product and blunt smoking to industry-manufactured associations of these products with rap and hip-hop artists, lending further support to calls for regulation of cigar companies' music industry sponsorships on the grounds of targeting young, Black populations. ...
Black young adults experience disparately high rates of cigar use and its health consequences. Little research has explored community-level influences on cigar smoking in this population, especially concerning product-specific influences and cigar smokers’ perceptions. We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 Black young adult (ages 21–29) cigar smokers in the Washington, D.C. area and analyzed themes regarding physical and sociocultural community-level factors perceived to influence cigar use. Themes were further analyzed based on participants’ predominant cigar products (cigarillos, large cigars, blunts). Participants reported easy access to affordable cigarillos, widespread cigarillo sales and targeted marketing, norms of cigar and blunt smoking for stress relief, socialization, and cultural participation, and ubiquitous cigar and blunt smoking cues, all of which promoted cigar use in their communities. Future research should further explore how community-level influences contribute to disproportionate cigar use among Black young adults. Our findings suggest that programs and policies addressing physical and sociocultural community-level pro-smoking influences may help mitigate cigar smoking disparities.
... In addition, the tobacco industry has historically used psychographic approaches to segment and target young adults in order to market their products based on lifestyles [13], and this has been shown to increase young tobacco users' engagement [14]. For example, tobacco companies have targeted young people of color using Hip Hop culture and music [15,16]. Mirroring this, a recent development in tobacco control programs is to tailor programs using peer crowd affiliation [17,18]. ...
... E-cigarette advertising receptivity (without exposure to cigarette advertising) was associated with subsequent dual use among never tobacco users [55], suggesting the role of tobacco marketing on dual use. Moreover, tobacco companies have historically used psychographic segmentation analogous to peer crowd targeting to promote their products [15,16,53]. A recent study documented that nearly half of leading Hip Hop music videos contained combustible or electronic tobacco products, suggesting this media source may contribute to normative perceptions of tobacco use in Hip Hop culture [56]. ...
Given the emerging tobacco landscape, dual use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes has increased among young adults, but little is known about its associated factors. Peer crowds, defined as macro-level connections between individuals with similar core values (e.g., "Hip Hop" describing a group that prefers hip hop music and values strength, honor, and respect), are a promising way to understand tobacco use patterns. We examined associations between peer crowds and tobacco use patterns by using data from a cross sectional survey of 1340 young adults in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014. Outcomes were the past 30-day use of: neither cigarettes nor e-cigarettes; cigarettes but not e-cigarettes; e-cigarettes but not cigarettes; and both cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Peer crowds included Hipster, Hip Hop, Country, Partier, Homebody, and Young Professional. Multinomial regression analysis indicated that peer crowds were significantly associated with different tobacco use patterns. Compared to Young Professionals, Hip Hop and Hipster crowds were more likely to dual use; Hipsters were more likely to use e-cigarettes only, and Country participants were more likely to smoke cigarettes only. These findings suggest that tobacco control campaigns and cessation interventions should be tailored to different young adult peer crowds and address poly-tobacco use.
... Music festivals and similar arenas are used worldwide by the tobacco industry to promote tobacco to youth and to shape brand image and generate brand recognition 1,2 . The industry uses subtle tobacco promotion described as 'belowthe-line promotion', such as handing out free cigarette samples or engaging in tobacco sponsorships 3,4 . ...
... The industry uses subtle tobacco promotion described as 'belowthe-line promotion', such as handing out free cigarette samples or engaging in tobacco sponsorships 3,4 . Given the enormous impact of music on youth lifestyle and identity formation, music events are considered efficient arenas for tobacco promotion and marketing 1,2 . In Denmark, the tobacco advertising ban from 2008 is subject to various exemptions, among others allowing for a 'neutral placement of tobacco' at point-of-sale 5 . ...
... Most notably, the tobacco industry has consistently targeted the African American community (Balbach, Gasior, & Barbeau, 2003;Garrett, Gardiner, Wright, & Pechacek, 2016a;Landrine et al., 2005). For instance, Kool's Kool Mixx campaign, targeted low-income African American communities through a campaign that tapped into African American hip-hop culture, featuring hip-hop themed packaging, mixed CDs, and other content and imagery relevant to hip-hop culture (Cruz, Wright, & Crawford, 2010;Garrett et al., 2016;Hafez & Ling, 2006). Tobacco companies have similarly targeted lower-income populations who identify as working class or "blue collar" by placing appealing marketing materials (e.g., that feature rugged activities, self-sufficiency) in channels favored by this group (e.g., sporting magazines, NASCAR races) (Brown-Johnson et al., 2014; National Cancer Institute, 2008). ...
... It is well-documented that, historically, tobacco companies have targeted brands towards specific ethnic groups (National Cancer Institute, 2008). For example, menthol brands such as Newport and Kool have specifically targeted the African American community (Cruz et al., 2010;Gardiner, 2004;Hafez & Ling, 2006;Sutton & Robinson, 2004); based on this, it would not be surprising if African Americans were more likely to report liking these brands. The current study's analyses do not address this issue, and it would be worthwhile for future analyses to examine whether any disparities in liking tobacco marketing exist at the brand level. ...
The role of tobacco marketing in tobacco use, particularly among the vulnerable ethnic and socioeconomic sub-populations is a regulatory priority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. There currently exist both ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in the use of tobacco products. Monitoring such inequalities in exposure to tobacco marketing is essential to inform tobacco regulatory policy that may reduce known tobacco-related health disparities. We use data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Wave 1 youth survey to examine (1) recalled exposure to and liking of tobacco marketing for cigarettes, non-large cigars, and e-cigarettes, (2) self-reported exposure to specific tobacco marketing tactics, namely coupons, sweepstakes, and free samples, and (3) self-reported impact of tobacco marketing and promotions on product use. Findings indicate that African Americans and those of lower SES were more likely to recall having seen cigarette and non-large cigar ads. Reported exposure to coupons, sweepstakes and free samples also varied ethnically and socioeconomically. African Americans and those of lower SES were more likely than other respondents to report that marketing and promotions as played a role in their tobacco product use. Better understanding of communication inequalities and their influence on product use is needed to inform tobacco regulatory action that may reduce tobacco company efforts to target vulnerable groups. Tobacco education communication campaigns focusing on disproportionately affected groups could help counter the effects of targeted industry marketing.
... 36 Additionally, tobacco companies target young people. [37][38][39][40][41][42] Thus, there is a critical need to counteract predatory tobacco marketing, particularly within high-risk subgroups. ...
... By contrast, messages for the Hip Hop peer crowd might address how the tobacco industry has targeted communities of color with menthol or flavored little cigars/cigarillos. 23,39,65 Peer crowds are also racially and ethnically diverse. In the San Francisco Bay Area Young Adult Health Survey, the Hip Hop peer crowd was 31.7% non-Hispanic black, 26.6% Hispanic, 15.7% non-Hispanic white, 15.6% non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander, and 10.5% non-Hispanic other race/ethnicity. ...
Introduction
Tobacco contributes to multiple cancers, and it is largely preventable. As overall smoking prevalence in California declines, smoking has become concentrated among high-risk groups. Targeting social/cultural groups (i.e., “peer crowds”) that share common values, aspirations, and activities in social venues like bars and nightclubs may reach high-risk young adult smokers. Lack of population data on young adult peer crowds limits the ability to assess the potential reach of such interventions.
Methods
This multimodal population-based household survey included young adults residing in San Francisco and Alameda counties. Data were collected in 2014 and analyzed in 2016. Multivariable logistic regressions assessed smoking by sociodemographic factors, attitudes, self-rated health, peer crowd affiliation, and bar/nightclub attendance.
Results
Smoking prevalence was 15.1% overall; 35.3% of respondents sometimes or frequently attended bars. In controlled analyses, bar attendance (AOR=2.13, 95% CI=1.00, 4.53) and binge drinking (AOR=3.17, 95% CI=1.59, 6.32) were associated with greater odds of smoking, as was affiliation with “Hip Hop” (AOR=4.32, 95% CI=1.48, 12.67) and “Country” (AOR=3.13, 95% CI=1.21, 8.09) peer crowds. Multivariable models controlling for demographics estimated a high probability of smoking among bar patrons affiliating with Hip Hop (47%) and Country (52%) peer crowds.
Conclusions
Bar attendance and affiliation with certain peer crowds confers significantly higher smoking risk. Interventions targeting Hip Hop and Country peer crowds could efficiently reach smokers, and peer crowd–tailored interventions have been associated with decreased smoking and binge drinking. Targeted interventions in bars and nightclubs may be an efficient way to address these cancer risks.
... Tobacco is responsible for one third of cancer deaths 4 and is the single most important contributor to cancer risk. 5 The tobacco industry has a long history of targeting marketing to youth and young adults, particularly using lifestyle and social environments, 6,7 including bars and nightclubs, 8,9 co-promotion of tobacco and alcohol use, 10,11 and use of sports, 12,13 music, 14,15 and consumer databases. 16 These marketing strategies entrench assumptions about tobacco use being "natural"; for example, young adults frequently state that tobacco and alcohol go together "like milk and cookies" 17 and there is a well-documented association between tobacco and alcohol use. ...
... 24 Tobacco marketing also exploits minority and vulnerable groups; campaigns encourage use among groups such as racial/ethnic minorities, poor women, 25 rural males, 12,26-28 and young people. 14,15,[29][30][31][32] There is a critical and ongoing need to counteract predatory tobacco marketing. ...
Adolescence and young adulthood, a period essential for determining exposures over the life-course, is an ideal time to intervene to lower cancer risk. This demographic group can be viewed as both the target audience and generator of messages for cancer prevention, such as skin cancer, obesity-, tobacco-, and human papillomavirus−related cancers. The purpose of this paper is to encourage innovative health communications that target youth; youth behavior; and the structural, environmental, and social determinants of youth behavior as critical areas of focus for cancer prevention and disparities reduction. The authors describe the rationale, processes, products, and early impacts of an award-winning youth diabetes prevention communication campaign model (The Bigger Picture) that harnesses spoken-word messages in school-based and social media presentations. The campaign supports minority adolescent and young adult artists to create content that aligns with values held closely by youth—values likely to resonate and affect change, such as defiance against authority, inclusion, and social justice. This campaign can be leveraged to prevent obesity, which is a cancer risk factor. Then, the authors propose concrete ways that The Bigger Picture’s pedagogical model could be adapted for broader cancer prevention messaging for youth of color and youth stakeholders regarding tobacco-related cancers, skin cancers, and human papillomavirus−related cancers. The goal is to demonstrate how a youth-generated and youth-targeted prevention campaign can: (1) reframe conversations about cancer prevention, (2) increase awareness that cancer prevention is about social justice and health equity, and (3) catalyze action to change social norms and confront the social and environmental drivers of cancer disparities.
... Further supporting this approach is the long history of subculturally and psychographically targeted campaigns used by commercial marketers, such as tobacco companies. 37,38 Future data, such as results from the large-scale evaluation study of the Fresh Empire campaign, will provide further understanding of the utility of this segmentation approach for the delivery of health education messages. ...
... 20,22,40 Additionally, the tobacco industry's history of using hip-hop culture in marketing strategies demonstrated both the power of targeted marketing tactics and the need for a tobacco prevention campaign developed specifically for hip-hop youths. 37 Fresh Empire was developed on the basis of insights from extensive qualitative and quantitative formative research with adolescents in the hip-hop crowd. This research was designed to inform brand and message design and dissemination and included the testing of brand concepts, strategic and creative concepts, and tobacco facts that informed the creation of salient messages. ...
Grounded on research showing that peer crowds vary in risk behavior, several recent health behavior interventions, including the US Food and Drug Administration’s Fresh Empire campaign, have targeted high-risk peer crowds.
We establish the scientific foundations for using this approach. We introduce peer crowd targeting as a strategy for culturally targeting health behavior interventions to youths. We use social identity and social norms theory to explicate the theoretical underpinnings of this approach. We describe Fresh Empire to demonstrate how peer crowd targeting functions in a campaign and critically evaluate the benefits and limitations of this approach.
By replacing unhealthy behavioral norms with desirable, healthy lifestyles, peer crowd–targeted interventions can create a lasting impact that resonates in the target audience’s culture.
... During the late 1990s, Brown and Williamson's B KOOL campaign featured "House of Menthol" promotions including playing cards featuring young, hip AAs, and concerts and music events at AA bars and nightclubs. 28 Even though tobacco control advocacy efforts in the AA community were successful in curtailing or stopping some of the tobacco industry activities (eg, Uptown and Menthol X), AA youth cigarette smoking rates still rose starkly in the 1990s. ...
... The protective factors that may have kept cigarette smoking among AA youth significantly lower than whites seem to not carry over into adulthood as cigarette smoking prevalence rapidly rises among AA adults to be similar to that of whites. 1 This "great leap forward" may be also attributed to the targeted marketing of AA adults by the tobacco industry. 20 The persistent targeted marketing to the AA community by the tobacco industry promoting menthol cigarettes and other flavored products 10,28,30,33,35,39 emphasize the importance of tobacco prevention and control efforts in countering this targeted marketing to help reduce the negative health consequences of smoking in this population. ...
Introduction:
Beginning in the late 1970s, a very sharp decline in cigarette smoking prevalence was observed among African American (AA) high school seniors compared with a more modest decline among whites. This historic decline resulted in a lower prevalence of cigarette smoking among AA youth that has persisted for several decades.
Methods:
We synthesized information contained in the research literature and tobacco industry documents to provide an account of past influences on cigarette smoking behavior among AA youth to help understand the reasons for these historically lower rates of cigarette smoking.
Results:
While a number of protective factors including cigarette price increases, religiosity, parental opposition, sports participation, body image, and negative attitudes towards cigarette smoking may have all played a role in maintaining lower rates of cigarette smoking among AA youth as compared to white youth, the efforts of the tobacco industry seem to have prevented the effectiveness of these factors from carrying over into adulthood.
Conclusion:
Continuing public health efforts that prevent cigarette smoking initiation and maintain lower cigarette smoking rates among AA youth throughout adulthood have the potential to help reduce the negative health consequences of smoking in this population.
Implications:
While AA youth continue to have a lower prevalence of cigarette smoking than white youth, they are still at risk of increasing their smoking behavior due to aggressive targeted marketing by the tobacco industry. Because AAs suffer disproportionately from tobacco-related disease, and have higher incidence and mortality rates from lung cancer, efforts to prevent smoking initiation and maintain lower cigarette smoking rates among AA youth have the potential to significantly lower lung cancer death rates among AA adults.
... Researchers have noted that corporations could benefi t from determining a particular target audience and employing message strategies that could appeal to that audience (Aaker, Brumbaugh, and Grier 2000;Kreuter and Wray 2003). In particular, studies have shown that corporations and the media incorporate popular culture into their message strategies to reach out to the target audiences (Hafez and Ling 2006;Holland and Gentry 1999). For instance, there is a growing number of corporations and organizations that implement marketing strategies developed to appeal to minorities based on sexual orientation (Miller 1995;Ng 2013) and race (Balbach, Gasior, and Barbeau 2003;Ringold 1995). ...
... This aligns with previous research, which found that the tobacco industry targets African Americans. [29][30][31] Further, findings are consistent with recent studies that found cigar brands feature up-and-coming hip-hop artists in promotions, such as Swisher Sweets' 'Artist Project'. 20 32 Our finding that cigar companies use influencers from the hip-hop music industry highlights the potential effectiveness of similar types of influencers in public health campaigns. ...
Purpose
Influencers market products for tobacco companies on social media. This is the first study to systematically examine leading cigar brands’ use of influencers on their brand Instagram pages.
Methods
We identified 24 leading cigar brands, using July 2017–June 2018 US retail data. We identified cigar brands that had official appearing Instagram pages, with at least one influencer in the past 20 posts. We coded characteristics of the past three posts from each of five brand pages that contained influencers, such as setting and what the influencer was doing. Finally, we described influencer characteristics.
Results
Approximately one-third of the 24 brands had official Instagram accounts with at least one influencer in the past 20 posts. We identified 28 influencers, typically people of colour from the hip-hop music industry, some with millions of followers. Influencers included Bella Thorne (@bellathorne), Shaquille O’Neal (@shaq) and T.I. (@troubleman31). Brands’ posts that contained influencers showed the influencer using/holding a product, wearing branded merchandise or appearing in photos with a brand watermark. Three brands’ pages posted sponsored event photos (ie, concerts and events using branded backgrounds).
Discussion
Cigar brands commonly use influencers to market their products on brand Instagram pages. Results are consistent with previous findings that cigar companies’ marketing may target younger African Americans and highlight the potential utility of education campaigns that similarly engage influencers.
... Tobacco companies have also spatially targeted communities of color by placing billboards and bus advertisements in neighborhoods primarily comprising black/African American or Hispanic/Latino residents [11]. Tobacco companies have paid people to go into inner-city neighborhoods to hand out free samples of menthol (and sometimes regular) cigarettes in an effort to attract black/African American young adult and adult customers [12][13][14]. ...
Background
Facebook’s advertising platform reaches most US households and has been used for health-related research recruitment. The platform allows for advertising segmentation by age, gender, and location; however, it does not explicitly allow for targeting by race or ethnicity to facilitate a diverse participant pool.
Objective
This study looked at the efficacy of zip code targeting in Facebook advertising to reach blacks/African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos who smoke daily for a quit-smoking web-based social media study.
Methods
We ran a general market campaign for 61 weeks using all continental US zip codes as a baseline. Concurrently, we ran 2 campaigns to reach black/African American and Hispanic-/Latino-identified adults, targeting zip codes ranked first by the percentage of households of the racial or ethnic group of interest and then by cigarette expenditure per household. We also ran a Spanish language campaign for 13 weeks, targeting all continental US zip codes but utilizing Facebook’s Spanish language targeting. The advertising images and language were common across campaigns. Costs were compared for advertisement clicks, queries, applications, and participants, and yields were compared for the final three outcomes. We examined outcomes before and after the Cambridge Analytica scandal that broke in March 2018. Finally, we examined 2 promoted Facebook features: lookalike audiences and audience network placement.
Results
Zip code targeting campaigns were effective for yielding the racial or ethnic groups of interest. The black-/African American–focused versus general market campaign increased black/African American weekly queries (mean 9.48, SD 5.69 vs general market mean 2.83, SD 2.05; P<.001) and applicants (mean 1.11, SD 1.21 vs general market mean 0.54, SD 0.58; P<.001). The Hispanic-/Latino-focused versus general market campaign increased Hispanic/Latino weekly queries (mean 3.10, SD 2.16 vs general market mean 0.71, SD 0.48; P<.001) and applicants (mean 0.36, SD 0.55 vs general market mean 0.10, SD 0.14; P=.001). Cost metrics did not differ between campaigns at generating participants (overall P=.54). Costs increased post- versus prescandal for the black-/African American–focused campaign for queries (mean US 5.87, SD 1.89; P=.001) and applicants (mean US 38.96, SD 28.31; P=.004) and for the Hispanic-/Latino-focused campaign for queries (mean US 7.04, SD 3.39; P=.005) and applicants (mean US 38.19, SD 21.20; P=.001).
Conclusions
Zip code targeting in Facebook advertising is an effective way to recruit diverse populations for health-based interventions. Audience network placement should be avoided. The Facebook lookalike audience may not be necessary for recruitment, with drawbacks including an unknown algorithm and unclear use of Facebook user data, and so public concerns around data privacy should be considered.
Trial Registration
ClinicalTrial.gov NCT02823028; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02823028
... Hispanic adolescents, on the other hand, had higher prevalence of exposure to Truth in this analysis, although previous evaluations using confirmed campaign awareness found that those of Hispanic ethnicity reported less exposure [57]. A greater proportion of NHB adolescents reported exposure to Truth compared with NHW adolescents, which is promising given tobacco industry targeting of this group [42,75,76] We also found that adolescents from households with less than $25 000 in annual income had lower prevalence of exposure to all three antitobacco campaigns compared with adolescents from higher income households, which is in line with an earlier evaluation of the Truth campaign [57]. Prevalence of smoking is higher among economically disadvantaged individuals [12] and more attention might need to be given to reaching this population, as they may be more difficult to reach given their more limited access to media channels where these ads are primarily aired [77]. ...
Smoking education and prevention campaigns have had marked success in reducing rates of tobacco use among adolescents, however, disparities in use continue to exist. It is critical to assess if adolescents at risk for tobacco use are being exposed to antitobacco campaigns. We used data from Wave 2 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study to assess the relationship between exposure to three antitobacco campaigns and key characteristics related to higher risk of cigarette use using full-sample weights and Poisson regression models with robust variance. Adjusted models identified that exposure to antitobacco campaigns was more common among racial and sexual minority adolescents and adolescents who: reported exposure to tobacco marketing, spent more time using media and had household income greater than $25 000. While some high-risk youth are more likely to report exposure to campaigns, there are some priority groups that are not being reached by current efforts compared with non-priority groups, including youth living in households with income below the poverty line and adolescents who are susceptible to cigarette smoking. Future campaigns should consider targeting these groups specifically in order to reduce tobacco use disparities.
... Compared to other crowds, the Hip-Hop crowd is disproportionately non-Hispanic African American, non-Hispanic multiracial, and Hispanic Moran, Villanti, Johnson, & Rath, 2019;Walker et al., 2018) and has increased likelihood and a high prevalence of tobacco use, making it a priority population for public health Lee, Jordan, Djakaria, & Ling, 2014;Moran et al., 2017;Walker et al., 2018). Furthermore, the popularity of hip-hop culture among adolescents and the use of hip-hop by the tobacco industry to promote tobacco products, particularly among African Americans (Ganz, Rose, & Cantrell, 2018;Hafez & Ling, 2006;Moran et al., 2017), highlights the potential impact on health equity of a campaign that targets this peer crowd. ...
Despite overall declines in youth cigarette use, tobacco use inequities exist by race/ethnicity. Health communication campaigns can be effective in changing tobacco-related attitudes, intentions, and behaviors and can be used to address tobacco use inequities by targeting young people who are at high risk for tobacco use. In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched Fresh Empire, the first tobacco public education campaign designed to reach primarily African American, Hispanic, and/or Asian American/Pacific Islander youth ages 12 to 17 years who identify with the Hip-Hop peer crowd. This article presents an overview of two targeting strategies—(a) influencers on social media and (b) paid digital and social media advertisements—that Fresh Empire uses to reach its audience and increase message credibility that can inform future campaigns targeting hard-to-reach populations. These strategies help the campaign expand its reach, be authentic, and increase engagement with the target audience. Microinfluencers are selected for their alignment with Hip-Hop values and high engagement rates; local influencers are teens recruited to promote the campaign in their communities; and digital and social ads are purchased with a minimum number of in-target guaranteed impressions. Across both strategies, metrics have met or exceeded expectations, including a sentiment analysis that revealed 87.3% of comments on microinfluencer posts were positive. Initial findings suggest that the tobacco prevention messages have reached the target population and resonated positively, which may help to increase message credibility and improve receptivity to tobacco prevention messages.
... Tobacco companies have also spatially targeted communities of color by placing billboards and bus advertisements in neighborhoods primarily comprising black/African American or Hispanic/Latino residents [11]. Tobacco companies have paid people to go into inner-city neighborhoods to hand out free samples of menthol (and sometimes regular) cigarettes in an effort to attract black/African American young adult and adult customers [12][13][14]. ...
BACKGROUND
Facebook’s advertising platform reaches most U.S. households and has been used for health-related research recruitment. The platform allows for advertising segmentation by age, gender, and location; however, does not explicitly allow for targeting by race/ethnicity to facilitate a diverse participant pool.
OBJECTIVE
We looked at the efficacy of zip code targeting in Facebook advertising to reach Blacks/African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos who smoke daily for a quit-smoking social media online study.
METHODS
We ran a General Market campaign for 61 weeks in all continental U.S. zip codes as a baseline. Concurrently, we ran two campaigns to reach Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino-identified adults, targeting zip codes ranked first by the percentage of households of the racial/ethnic group of interest, then by cigarette expenditure per household. We ran a Spanish Language campaign for 13 weeks, targeting all continental U.S. zip codes but utilizing Facebook’s Spanish language targeting. The ad images and language were common across campaigns. Costs were compared for ad clicks, queries, applications, and participants; and yields were compared for the final three outcomes. We examined outcomes before and after the Cambridge Analytica scandal that became public in March 2018. Finally, we examined two promoted Facebook features, Lookalike Audiences and Audience Network Placement.
RESULTS
Zip code targeting campaigns were effective for yielding the racial/ethnic groups of interest. The Black/African American-focused versus General Market campaign increased Black/African American weekly queries (mean=9.48 vs. General Market=2.83, p < .001) and applicants (mean=1.11 vs. General Market=0.54, p < .001). The Hispanic/Latino-focused versus General Market campaign increased Hispanic/Latino weekly queries (mean=3.10 vs. General Market=0.71, p < .001) and applicants (mean=0.36 vs. General Market=0.10, p=.001). Cost metrics did not differ between the campaigns at generating participants, overall p=.537. Costs increased post-vs. pre-scandal for the Black/African American-focused campaign for queries (mean=5.86, p=.001) and applicants (mean=38.96, p=.004) and for the Hispanic/Latino-focused campaign for queries (mean=7.04 , p=.005) and applicants (mean=38.19, p=.001). Lookalike Audience while cheaper than General Market for ad clicks (mean=1.07, p < .001) was similar for queries (mean=4.27, p=.637). Audience Network Placement on websites and apps versus ad placement on Facebook alone was cheaper for ad clicks (mean=0.11 vs. 0.69, p < .001), but substantially more expensive for queries (mean=13.40 vs. 5.62, p=.048).
CONCLUSIONS
Zip code targeting in Facebook advertising is an effective way to recruit diverse populations for health-based interventions. Public concerns around data privacy should be considered regarding effects on recruitment and costs. Audience Network Placement should be avoided. The Facebook Lookalike Audience may not be necessary for recruitment with drawbacks including an unknown algorithm and unclear use of Facebook user data.
CLINICALTRIAL
ClinicalTrial.gov NCT02823028
... HTPs promoted by the three major tobacco companies (PMI, JTI, and BAT) may employ a variety of marketing strategies to appeal to different sociodemographic user groups. Indeed, differentiated marketing strategies for cigarette smoking have disproportionately appealed to population subgroups, including youth and young adults [21][22][23], women [23], minorities [24,25], and health-concerned smokers [21]. ...
Heated tobacco products (HTPs), such as IQOS, glo, and Ploom TECH, with a variety of flavored tobacco-containing inserts, have reportedly achieved a significant market share in Japan. We analyzed data from Wave 1 of the ITC Japan Survey, a nationally representative web survey conducted in February to March 2018 among 4684 adult participants to estimate the prevalence of HTP use, describe characteristics of HTP users, and explore user preferences for HTP device and flavor. The overall prevalence of monthly HTP use was 2.7% (1.7% daily use). Virtually all HTP users were current cigarette smokers (67.8%) or former smokers (25.0%); only 1.0% of HTP users were never smokers. Among HTP users, IQOS was the most frequently reported brand used (64.5%), and menthol was the most common flavor reported (41.5%). IQOS was used more by younger respondents and those who reported daily use, while Ploom TECH was more popular among older respondents and non-daily HTP users. This is one of the first non-industry funded studies to explore the use of HTPs in Japan.
... In 22 In 2004, the 'Kool Mixx' campaign targeted African American youth in its advertising, marketing, and promotion of cigarettes in violations of the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. 23 These similarities are evident and may not be coincidental. From 2004 to 2016, Al Capone's brand strategy was led by a former Brown & Williamson employee who spent more than two decades with Brown & Williamson and its predecessor American Tobacco Company. ...
... After the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, tobacco companies increasingly concentrated their magazine advertisement spending on mentholated brands, such as Lorillard's Newport brand (now a brand of RJ Reynolds, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco), which are popular among Black youth (Alpert, Koh, & Connolly, 2008). Additionally, the tobacco industry has long sponsored minority-focused musical and cultural events that prominently featured brand placement (e.g., hip-hop focused Swisher Sweets Artist Project, which includes live music concerts held in convience stores) (Hafez & Ling, 2006). Finally, discriminationbased stress may lead racial and ethnic minorities to seek supportive virtual communities online, which could unintentionally lead to greater engagement with online tobacco marketing through the same processes as described for sexual and gender minorities. ...
Introduction
The tobacco industry has previously targeted sexual/gender and racial/ethnic minorities with focused campaigns in traditional, offline marketing. We assess whether these populations report more engagement with online tobacco marketing compared with heterosexual and non-Hispanic white youth.
Methods
Data were from 8015 adolescents sampled between 2014 and 2015 in the nationally-representative Population Assessment for Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. Engagement with online tobacco marketing within the past year was assessed through eight forms of engagement. A weighted logistic regression model was fit with engagement as outcome and socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics, internet-related and substance use behavior, tobacco-related risk factors, tobacco use status, and prior engagement with online tobacco marketing as covariates.
Results
Accounting for other covariates including tobacco use status and prior engagement with online tobacco marketing, the odds of past-year engagement were higher for sexual minority males (aOR = 1.57; 95% CI: 1.05–2.35) compared to straight males and higher for sexual minority females (aOR = 1.45; 95% CI: 1.13–1.87) compared to straight females. The odds of past-year engagement were also higher for Hispanics (aOR = 1.31; 95% CI: 1.11–1.56) and non-Hispanic Blacks (aOR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.14–1.77) compared to non-Hispanic Whites.
Conclusions
Sexual/gender and and racial/ethnic minority youth reported higher engagement with online tobacco marketing than their heterosexual and non-Hispanic white peers, respectively.
Previous article in issue
... In the collection's title, the hard "K" sounds provoke an uncomfortable tone, as the extra effort that one puts into pronouncing it highlights the awkwardness of the concept of coolness and the act of labeling something cool. The title also connects to the collection's discussions of the capitalist appropriation of sonic culture, as Hafez and Ling (2006) have shown how the cigarette brand Kool used hip-hop, jazz, and "Latin" music to promote their tobacco products in historically marginalized communities. That images and sounds of African American and Latinx culture were used to sell cigarettes that ultimately did damage to the bodies of those people illustrates the nefarious potentials of the sonic structures built on colonizing corporate aspirations. ...
Urayoán Noel’s poetry has garnered much attention for its promotion of hemispheric politics and poetics, along with its interrogation of technology’s structural and narrative interventions into diasporic cultures. This article investigates the role of sound in the Puerto Rican poet’s articulation of contemporary struggles against overwhelming hypertechnology. The analysis focuses on three poems: “Lino: Employee of the Month,” from Kool Logic/La lógica kool (2005); “babel o city (el gran concurso),” from Hi-density Politics (2010); and the live-recorded version of “Boringkén,” from Boringkén (2008). Drawing on Aldama’s (2013) concept of poetic estrangement and Dowdy’s (2013) analysis of Latinx poetic critiques of neoliberalism, this article examines how exclusionary soundscapes are built through repressive understandings of sonic modernity, and how countersounds attempt to decolonize those spaces. Noel’s poetry shows how creative voices and the reappropriation of sound technologies can help position the diasporic subject and subvert dominant sonic structures.
... Exposure to Hip Hop-celebrity-endorsed tobacco products are also associated with increased tobacco use susceptibility (Sterling et al., 2013). Furthermore, the tobacco industry has a long history of using Hip Hop imagery and signals in their marketing efforts targeting predominately low-income, Black, urban communities with brands such as Kool and Newport (Cruz et al., 2010;Hafez and Ling, 2006). Cigarette marketing campaigns use models, images, language, and settings associated with young, urban culture to convey the values, locations, and tastes of that audience, leading to higher brand appeal and new users (Cruz et al., 2010;Ganz et al., 2018;Richardson et al., 2014). ...
This study examines the potential association between strength of Hip Hop peer crowd identification and tobacco use in one of the first large samples of Hip Hop youth in the United States. Data are from a geographically-targeted, address-based convenience sample of 2194 youths aged 12–17 who identify with the Hip Hop peer crowd collected via in-person and web interviews in 30 U.S. media markets in 2015. We examined strength of Hip Hop peer crowd identification, perceived peer tobacco use, and tobacco use outcomes. Overall, 18.3% of Hip Hop youth reported current blunt (cigar with added marijuana) use, followed by electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) (11.6%), cigar (without added marijuana) (8.8%), hookah (6.5%), and cigarette (5.6%) use. Stronger Hip Hop peer crowd identification was associated with increased odds of using cigarettes (OR = 2.25, p < 0.05), cigars (OR = 2.14, p < 0.05), and blunts (OR = 1.61, p < 0.05), controlling for demographic characteristics and perceived peer tobacco use. Results suggest that a Hip Hop peer crowd–targeted public education prevention campaign for youth can be promising for a variety of tobacco products.
... 3,17 Tobacco companies have a long history of using young adult psychographic segmentation in marketing their products, 19 including Hip Hop and Hipster cultures. 5,20 This tailoring can be applied to anti-tobacco campaigns to prevent smoking and promote cessation. 3,17 Indeed, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Fresh Empire national campaign, launched in 2015, targeted the Hip Hop peer crowd to prevent and reduce tobacco use among at-risk multicultural youth. ...
Purpose: To compare the relationship between anti-tobacco industry attitudes and intention and attempts to quit smoking across 6 young adult peer crowds.
Design: A cross-sectional bar survey in 2015.
Setting: Seven US cities (Albuquerque, Los Angeles, Nashville, Oklahoma City, San Diego, San Francisco, and Tucson).
Participants: Two thousand eight hundred seventeen young adult bar patrons who were currently smoking.
Measures: Intention to quit in the next 6 months and having made a quit attempt in the last 12 months were binary outcomes. Anti-industry attitudes were measured by 3 items indicating support for action against the tobacco industry. Peer crowd affiliation was measured using the I-Base Survey.
Analysis: Adjusted multivariable logistic regression models examined the association between anti-industry attitudes and the outcomes for the total sample and for each peer crowd.
Results: Overall, anti-industry attitudes were positively associated with both intention to quit (odds ratio [OR] = 1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.24-1.52) and attempt to quit (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.03-1.27). Intriguingly, the relationship between anti-industry attitudes and intention to quit differed by peer crowd affiliation, with significant associations for Homebody, Partier, Hipster, and Hip Hop, but not for Young Professional and Country.
Conclusions: Developing health communication messages that resonate with unique peer crowd values can enhance the relevance of public health campaigns. Tobacco control practitioners should tailor anti-industry messages to promote intention to quit smoking among the highest risk young adults.
... Various scholars have explored music and politics as they relate to community engagement (Hallam, Creech & Varvarigou, 2012), challenge the status quo (Street, 2003), and encourage citizen participation in politics (Street, Hague & Savigny, 2007). Others have looked at music use in times of war and violence (Baker, 2012), for marketing purposes (Hafez & Ling, 2006) and as a tool for political communication (Onyebadi, 2017). However, scholarly attention is yet to focus on music in the social space as a tool for political aggrandizement, especially in Nigeria. ...
In this chapter, the authors used framing analysis to examine the dynamics of music, social media, and politics. Based on framing and impression management theories, this study considers music as a tool to convey political messages and argues that political parties use music to spread positive narratives of their accomplishments to promote themselves and their flag-bearers while using negative narratives to vilify and attempt to delegitimize their opponents. The authors examined the lyrics of two songs, “Change Blues” and “The Truth Blues,” both viral political satires by opposing political parties, and discussed the songs' strong emphasis on corruption in Nigeria and ways in which the political parties attempted to use the songs to encourage political participation and for their image management.
... For example, in the Midwest a 10% increase in the African American/Black population of a census block group was associated with 26% more menthol advertisements in stores (Widome et al., 2013). Targeted retail advertising parallels previous menthol marketing to Black residents through other channels such as billboards and tobacco industry sponsorships of community events in Black neighborhoods (Altman et al., 1991;Hafez and Ling, 2006). Research on the relationship between retail advertising for menthol cigarettes and other racial/ethnic compositions of neighborhoods is more limited. ...
This study describes retail marketing for menthol cigarettes and its relationship with neighborhood demographics in a national sample of tobacco retailers in the United States. Mixed-effects models were used to examine three outcomes: menthol cigarette exterior advertising, menthol cigarette price promotions, and the pack price of menthol and non-menthol cigarettes. Thirty-eight percent of retailers displayed at least one menthol advertisement on the store exterior and 69% advertised price promotions. Retail advertising was more common in neighborhoods in the second (OR = 1.5 [1.1, 2.0]) and fourth (OR = 1.9 [1.3, 2.7]) quartiles of Black residents as compared to the lowest quartile. Menthol advertising was more prevalent in the third (OR = 1.4 [1.0, 1.9]) and lowest (OR = 1.6 [1.2, 2.2]) income quartiles as compared to the highest quartile. Price promotions for Newport were more common in neighborhoods with the highest quartile of Black residents (OR = 1.8 [1.2, 2.7]). Prices of Newport were cheaper in neighborhoods with the highest quartiles of youth, Black residents, and lower-income households. Policies that restrict the sales and marketing of menthol cigarettes are needed to address disparities.
... However, Hip Hop is more than a genre of music; it is a powerful "peer crowd," or culture, that influences millions of people, including many African American and Hispanic youth, given the culture's roots in these communities (Chang, 2005;Motley & Henderson, 2008). In fact, tobacco companies have historically utilized Hip Hop culture to market tobacco products in minority communities through promotional activities aligning Hip Hop cultural values with tobacco use (Cruz, Wright, & Crawford, 2010;Hafez & Ling, 2006). As a result, the connection between tobacco use and Hip Hop culture, and the peer crowd's influence on youth beliefs and norms, were critical considerations when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) and its marketing and research contractor, Rescue Agency, began developing a national tobacco public education campaign for multicultural youth. ...
Introduction:
Peer crowds, peer groups with macro-level connections and shared norms that transcend geography and race/ethnicity, have been linked to risky health behaviors. Research has demonstrated that Hip Hop peer crowd identification, which is common among multicultural youth, is associated with increased risk of tobacco use. To address this, the FDA Center for Tobacco Products created Fresh Empire, the first national tobacco education campaign tailored for Hip Hop youth aged 12-17 who are multicultural (Hispanic, African American, Asian-Pacific Islander, or Multiracial). As part of campaign development, peer crowd (Hip Hop, Mainstream, Popular, Alternative, Country) and cigarette smoking status were examined for the first time with a nationally recruited sample.
Methods:
Youth were recruited via targeted social media advertisements. Participants aged 13-17 (n = 5153) self-reported peer crowd identification via the I-Base Survey™ and cigarette smoking status. Differences in smoking status by peer crowd were examined using chi-square and followed up with z-tests to identify specific differences.
Results:
Alternative youth were most at risk of cigarette smoking, followed by Hip Hop. Specifically, Hip Hop youth were significantly less likely to be Non-susceptible Non-triers than Popular, Mainstream, and Country youth, and more likely to be Experimenters than Popular and Mainstream youth.
Conclusions:
Representative studies show that Alternative is relatively small compared to other high-risk crowds, such as the Hip Hop peer crowd. The current research underscores the potential utility of interventions tailored to larger at-risk crowds for campaigns like Fresh Empire.
... A meta-analysis by Primack et al. (2007) found that African Americans are exposed to more tobacco-related advertising (e.g., billboard) than Whites are. Studies on tobacco advertising (Anderson, 2011;Hafez and Ling, 2006) have found that the tobacco industry has focused on minorities and youth through targeted marketing techniques (e.g., young attractive African American models). Dauphinee et al. (2013) found that African American youth display greater awareness of tobacco branding than youth of other ethnicities. ...
Background Little is known about how tobacco use varies among youth of different racial and ethnic groups and how these patterns are related to levels of nicotine dependence. Objectives This study investigated the tobacco use patterns of White, African American, and Hispanic high school students. We further explored whether tobacco use patterns were associated with levels of nicotine dependence and gender. Methods Data were analyzed from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) of high school students who endorsed at least one form of tobacco use in their lifetime (n = 4691). Three separate latent class analysis (LCA) models were estimated using seven different types of tobacco products as indicators. Also, the level of nicotine dependence was compared with one class to another class in three racial/ethnicity groups. Results Four classes of White youth were identified: (1) “Non-user” (67%), (2) “Polytobacco” (6%), (3) “Chewing Tobacco” (8%), and (4) “(E-)Cigarettes” (19%) classes. The “Polytobacco” class had the highest nicotine dependence followed by “Chewing Tobacco,” “(E-)cigarettes,” and “Non-user.” Among African American youth, two tobacco patterns were identified: “Non-user” (91%) and “Cigarette/Cigar” (9%). The “Cigarette/Cigar” class had greater nicotine dependence than the “Non-user” class. Among Hispanic youth, three subgroups were identified: “Non-user” (78%), “(E-)Cigarette/Cigar” (14%), and “Hookah” (18%). “(E)Cigarette/cigar” had the highest nicotine dependence in Hispanic youth followed by the “Hookah” and “Non-users” classes. Conclusion We found distinct classes of youth tobacco use by race/ethnicity. Although poly-tobacco use was common, White, African American, and Latino youth used different tobacco types, suggesting that racially and ethnically targeted prevention strategies may be indicated.
... The results of this study reflect marketing efforts of the tobacco industry. In fact, analyses of tobacco industry documents show that it has a long history of targeting lower socioeconomic individuals, minorities, and youth [1, [24][25][26][27]. There are several examples of such efforts. ...
While most ecological studies have shown that higher levels of point-of-sale (POS) cigarette marketing are associated with larger proportions of residents from lower socioeconomic and minority backgrounds in neighborhoods, there are no studies that examine individual-level social disparities in exposure to POS cigarette marketing among smokers in the United States. Our aim was to examine these disparities in a Midwestern metropolitan area in the United States. We conducted a telephone survey to collect data on 999 smokers. Cigarette marketing was measured by asking respondents three questions about noticing advertisements, promotions, and displays of cigarettes within their respective neighborhoods. The questions were combined to create a summated scale. We estimated ordered logistic regression models to examine the association of sociodemographic variables with exposure to POS cigarette marketing. Adjusted results showed that having a lower income (p < 0.003) and belonging to a race/ethnicity other than “non-Hispanic White” (p = 0.011) were associated with higher levels of exposure to POS cigarette marketing. The results highlight social disparities in exposure to POS cigarette marketing in the United States, which can potentially be eliminated by banning all forms of cigarette marketing.
... Tobacco companies have long used categories defined by psychographic factors or cultural affiliation (such as Hipster or Hip Hop culture) for targeted marketing campaigns. [23][24][25] Peer crowd affiliation is one innovative way to approximate psychographic and cultural segmentation to identify high-risk subgroups among young adult bar patrons. 14 'Peer crowds' are the macro-level connections between peer groups with similar values, interests, lifestyles, styles of dress, media consumption habits, influencers and social tendencies (eg, Hipsters). ...
Background
In California, young adult tobacco prevention is of prime importance; 63% of smokers start by the age of 18 years, and 97% start by the age of 26 years. We examined social affiliation with ‘peer crowd’ (eg, Hipsters) as an innovative way to identify high-risk tobacco users.
Methods
Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2014 (N=3368) among young adult bar patrons in 3 California cities. We examined use rates of five products (cigarettes, e-cigarettes, hookah, cigars and smokeless tobacco) by five race/ethnicity categories. Peer crowd affiliation was scored based on respondents' selecting pictures of young adults representing those most and least likely to be in their friend group. Respondents were classified into categories based on the highest score; the peer crowd score was also examined as a continuous predictor. Logistic regression models with each tobacco product as the outcome tested the unique contribution of peer crowd affiliation, controlling for race/ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation and city.
Results
Respondents affiliating with Hip Hop and Hipster peer crowds reported significantly higher rates of tobacco use. As a categorical predictor, peer crowd was related to tobacco use, independent of associations with race/ethnicity. As a continuous predictor, Hip Hop peer crowd affiliation was also associated with tobacco use, and Young Professional affiliation was negatively associated, independent of demographic factors.
Conclusions
Tobacco product use is not the same across racial/ethnic groups or peer crowds, and peer crowd predicts tobacco use independent of race/ethnicity. Antitobacco interventions targeting peer crowds may be an effective way to reach young adult tobacco users.
Trial registration number
NCT01686178, Pre-results.
... Music is an influential marketing tool because it has been found to create emotional relationships between a brand and it's audience. Therefore, music can be used to bind together the elements of an integrated marketing campaign (Hafez & Ling, 2006). ...
The aim of this study was to explore how cross-promotion and experiential marketing influence brand building within the context of the music and fashion industries.
A-B testing was used to collect data on user perception of different design elements on a point-of-purchase web page. The data was analyzed to determine which design elements were most successful in positively influencing purchase intent of the user.
Overall, the participants is this study favored the treatment websites (58% average) to the control websites (42% average). To appeal to the consumer and begin the experiential marketing process for an event, a website should contain a mixture of professional and crowd-sourced media. However, the participants in this study significantly favored the websites with improved photographs (75% to 25%) and user defined content (75% to 25%).
The Recommendations were presented for best practices in designing a brand-building website that will provide the user with an immersive purchase experience.
Background
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are the most used form of tobacco products among adolescents and young adults, and Vuse is one of the most popular brands of e-cigarettes among US adolescents. In October 2021, Vuse Solo became the first e-cigarette brand to receive marketing granted orders (MGOs) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), authorizing its marketing and their tobacco-flavored pods. Vuse Ciro and Vuse Vibe, and their tobacco-only (“original”) e-liquids, were authorized for marketing in May 2022 and Vuse Alto tobacco-flavored devices were authorized in July 2024. These marketing authorizations are contingent upon the company adhering to the MGOs’ stated marketing restrictions, including reducing exposure and appeal to youth via digital, radio, television, print, and point-of-sale advertising.
Objective
In this study, we analyzed the official social media channels of Vuse (Instagram and Facebook) to examine how Vuse marketed its products on social media and whether these marketing posts contain potentially youth-appealing themes.
Methods
We conducted content analysis of the official RJ Reynolds Vapor Company Instagram and Facebook accounts. We collected all posts from October 10, 2019, when RJ Reynolds Vapor Company submitted its premarket tobacco product application to the FDA, to February 21, 2022, to cover the first winter holiday season after the MGO. Two coders developed the codebook with 17 themes based on the Content Appealing to Youth index to capture the posts’ characteristics and potentially youth-appealing content. We calculated the percentage of posts in which each code was present.
Results
A total of 439 unique posts were identified. During this study’s period, there were no posts on Instagram or Facebook marketing Vuse Solo (the authorized product at that time). Instead, Vuse Alto (unauthorized to date of study) was heavily marketed, with 59.5% (n=261) of the posts specifically mentioning the product name. Further, “Vuse” more generally was marketed on social media without differentiating between the authorized and unauthorized products (n=182, 41.5%). The marketing messages contained several potentially youth-appealing themes including creativity or innovation (n=189, 43.1%), individuality or freedom (n=106, 24.2%), and themes related to art (n=150, 34.2%), music (n=77, 17.5%), sports (n=125, 28.5%), nature (with n=49, 11.2% of the posts containing flora imageries), alcohol imagery (n=10, 2.3%), and technology (n=6, 1.4%).
Conclusions
Although Vuse Alto e-cigarettes had not yet obtained FDA marketing authorization during the 28 months of data collection, they were the primary Vuse e-cigarette devices marketed on social media. Vuse social media posts use themes that are appealing to and likely promote youth use, including creativity and innovation, individuality or freedom, arts and music, nature, technology, and alcohol imagery. The FDA should (1) prohibit companies from comarketing unauthorized products alongside authorized products, and (2) exercise enforcement against even authorized products that are marketed using youth-appealing features.
OBJECTIVE: Non-tobacco blunt wraps (N-TBWs), which entered the marketplace in 2017, are being promoted as an alternative to traditional TBWs (e.g., cigarillos) for blunt smoking. The lack of studies on these novel products warrants an investigation. This study was the first to explore blunt smokers’ perceptions about N-TBWs and the extent of product marketing on Twitter.
METHODS: A corpus of tweets from Twitter, posted between January 2017 and November 2021, were identified by a Boolean search string (N = 149,343), where 48,695 tweets were classified as relevant by a machine learning algorithm. These relevant tweets were further screened and labeled as promotional or organic based on product URLs, usernames, keywords, or hashtags. Topic modeling using Dirichlet Allocation was then employed for identifying latent patterns of words among relevant tweets. The Social Networking Potential (SNP) score was employed for identifying influential accounts.
RESULTS: Most relevant tweets (89%) were organic, non-promotional expressions about N-TBWs. Account users who only posted non-promotional tweets had a significantly higher SNP than those who only posted promotional tweets. Yet, neither of the two groups of account users consisted of known celebrities. Topic modeling revealed three broad groups of topics (7 in total) denoting the attributes of hemp N-TBWs, interest in non-hemp N-TBWs, and product marketing.
CONCLUSIONS: The large proportion of organic tweets is indicative of the nascency of N-TBWs, which will need to be marketed more extensively if they are to replace cigar products used by blunt smokers.
Objectives: Despite their wide use, little is known about risk and protective factors associated with cigar, little cigar, and cigarillo (CLCC) and blunt use among United States (US) youth, including youth in the Hip Hop peer crowd. Methods: Data come from a majority black and Hispanic cross-sectional sample of 2187 Hip Hop youth ages 12 to 18 recruited via address-based sampling and social media in 2015. We used multivariable logistic regressions with covariates entered in blocks to test which participant characteristics were associated with (1) CLCC use and (2) blunt use. Results: Several cultural/environmental, social/normative, and intrapersonal factors were positively associated with CLCC and blunt use, eg, older age, peer cigarette and marijuana use, and lower perceived smoking risks. There were also unique positive correlates of each, including being non-Hispanic black (vs Hispanic), smoking being allowed in the home, having friends that smoke CLCCs, and experiencing poor mental health for CLCC use, and household tobacco use and sensation seeking for blunt use. Conclusions: Factors associated with CLCC and blunt use may be important in designing interventions to prevent their use. The associations among household tobacco use, sensation seeking, and blunt use among the Hip Hop peer crowd warrant future investigation.
Background:
Alcohol consumption is causally linked to multiple cancers. African-Americans are at greater risk of cancer than other demographic groups and suffer more serious consequences. Awareness and knowledge of the alcohol-cancer link are low, especially among African-Americans compared to other racial/ethnic groups. This study built on the theory of identity-based motivation (TIBM) to explore how people think about alcohol consumption in relation to their social identities and beliefs about cancer.
Methods:
Data come from 20 in-depth interviews with current drinkers (10 White and 10 African-American adults) in a major mid-Atlantic city in the summer of 2021, using race- and gender-concordant interviewers. An abductive and iterative approach identified salient themes about how drinkers thought about alcohol, social identities, and cancer.
Results:
While most participants discussed alcohol use as an important part of American culture, African-American participants were more likely to discuss drinking as a way to cope with racism and other hardships. Participants also noted the need to address structural issues that would make it difficult to cut back on drinking. Both White and African-American participants talked about stressors in life that drive them to drink and make cutting back difficult, and African-American participants discussed how the location of liquor stores in their neighborhoods made alcohol too readily available.
Conclusions:
Insights from these interviews confirm the relevance of racial and other identities in shaping responses to alcohol-cancer messaging, and emphasize the need to consider both behavior change and policy change to create supportive environments for such changes.
Purpose
To evaluate the impact of a statewide flavored tobacco restriction among Massachusetts residents who use menthol or flavored tobacco and to assess differences in impact between Black and White users, as the tobacco industry has targeted menthol to Black users.
Design
An online survey was distributed through a panel provider and household mailings.
Setting
Eleven Massachusetts communities with higher-than-state-average Black, Indigenous or People of Color populations
Subjects
Black (n = 63) and White (n = 231) non-Hispanic residents who used menthol or other flavored tobacco products in the past year.
Measures
Impact of the law on use, access, and quitting behaviors.
Analysis
Outcomes were assessed between Blacks and Whites using Pearson chi-square tests.
Results
Over half (53% of White, 57% of Black) of respondents believed the law made it more difficult to access menthol products; two-thirds (67% of White,64% of Black) accessed menthol products in another state. Black users were significantly more likely to report purchasing menthol products off the street ( P ≤ .05). One-third (28% of White, 32% of Black) believed the law made it easier to quit, and one-third (27% of White, 34% of Black) completely quit in the past year.
Conclusions
Flavored tobacco restrictions may positively and equitably impact cessation. Cross-border access and off-the-street purchasing suggest the need for greater cessation support and underscore the importance of a national policy.
The purpose of this study was to explore how connectedness to Black/African American or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities can promote anti-tobacco industry beliefs and to examine the role of targeted anti-tobacco industry messaging (i.e., tobacco industry denormalization [TID] messages).We hypothesized that community connectedness would predict anti-tobacco industry motivation (H1) and that this effect would be mediated by community-specific anti-industry beliefs (H2). We also hypothesized that these effects would be greater (i.e., moderated) for individuals exposed to targeted TID messages (H3). This study was a secondary analysis of data from a web-based experiment focused on the effects of counter-industry messages (data collected in 2020). The sample consisted of 430 Black/African Americans and 458 LGBTQ young adults. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. In support of hypothesis 1, community connectedness was associated with anti-tobacco industry motivation for both the LGBTQ and Black/African American subsamples. Hypothesis 2 was also supported. The associations between community connectedness and anti-industry motivations were partially mediated by anti-industry beliefs. Hypothesis 3 was not supported. Exposure to counter-industry messages did not modify the structural model; however, counter-industry messages increased anti-industry beliefs in both subsamples. Fostering community connectedness may help to mobilize community-based tobacco control efforts. Furthermore, interventions targeting anti-tobacco industry beliefs may be effective at reducing tobacco-related disparities. Anti-tobacco industry beliefs can be increased using brief targeted TID messages. Collectively, these findings suggest that community-based approaches rooted in consciousness-raising action may provide a useful model for future tobacco control interventions.
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the social branding framework, which uses lifestyle branding to change behaviour within psychographically-defined target audiences. Syke, a social branding programme to reduce cigarette use within the higher-risk alternative teen peer crowd in Virginia, USA, is presented as a case study with evaluation results.
Design/methodology/approach
Social branding first creates an authentic lifestyle brand that appeals to a psychographically-defined audience. Once sociocultural authority is built, the lifestyle brand introduces tailored behavioural messaging using targeted messaging channels, relying on experiential marketing events and in-group influencers to align the desired behaviour with the audience’s social identity and values. The evaluation consisted of annual cross-sectional surveying (2011–2014; n = 2,266) on brand recall, liking, message comprehension and current smoking. Among those with recall, the prevalence of liking/comprehension categories (disliked and did not understand; liked or understood; liked and understood) and of smoking within categories was compared across years using chi-square tests. Multivariate logistic regression explored liking/comprehension as a predictor of smoking.
Findings
Recall, liking and comprehension were significantly higher in 2014 than in 2011, as was the proportion who both liked and understood Syke. Those who liked and understood Syke had half the odds of current smoking compared to those who disliked and did not understand it.
Originality/value
Syke reached, was liked by and was understood by the target audience. The social branding framework effectively appeals to and reaches higher-risk audiences, with learnings applicable to other behaviours and populations.
Fourteen percent of US adults use tobacco products. Because many of those who use tobacco are parents and/or caregivers, children are disproportionately exposed to tobacco smoke. People who use tobacco products often become addicted to nicotine, resulting in tobacco dependence, a chronic, relapsing disease. Tobacco use and exposure are more likely to occur in vulnerable and marginalized groups, including those living in poverty. Although some view tobacco use as a personal choice, evidence suggests that structural forces play an important role in tobacco uptake, subsequent nicotine addiction, and perpetuation of use. Viewing tobacco use and tobacco dependence through a structural competency lens promotes recognition of the larger systemic forces perpetuating tobacco use, including deliberate targeting of groups by the tobacco industry, lack of enforcement of age-for-sale laws, inferior access to health insurance and health care, poor access to cessation resources, and economic stress. Each of these forces perpetuates tobacco initiation and use; in turn, tobacco use perpetuates the user's adverse health and economic conditions. Pediatricians are urged to view family tobacco use as a social determinant of health. In addition to screening adolescents for tobacco use and providing resources and treatment of tobacco dependence, pediatricians are encouraged to systematically screen children for secondhand smoke exposure and support family members who smoke with tobacco cessation. Additionally, pediatricians can address the structural issues perpetuating tobacco use by becoming involved in policy and advocacy initiatives.
Background:
Tobacco companies include on the packaging of their products URLs directing consumers to websites that contain protobacco messages. Online media tend to be underregulated and provide the industry with an opportunity to present users with protobacco communication.
Objective:
The objective of our study was to document the content of websites that were advertised on tobacco packs in 14 low- and middle-income countries.
Methods:
We purchased tobacco packs from 14 low- and middle-income countries in 2013 and examined them for the presence of URLs. We visited unique URLs on multiple occasions between October 1, 2016 and August 9, 2017. We developed a coding checklist and used it to conduct a content analysis of active corporate websites to identify types of protobacco communication. The coding checklist included the presence of regulatory controls and warnings, engagement strategies, marketing appeals (eg, description of product popularity, luxury/quality, taste), corporate social responsibility programs, and image management. We coded brand websites separately and also described social media and other website types.
Results:
We identified 89 unique URLs, of which 54 were active during the search period. We assessed 26 corporate websites, 21 brand websites, 2 nontobacco websites, and 5 social media pages. We excluded 2 corporate websites and 14 brand websites due to limited accessible content or incomplete content. Corporate social responsibility was discussed on all corporate websites, and marketing appeals were also common. Corporate websites were also more likely to include more nonspecific (12/24, 50%) than specific (7/24, 29%) health warnings. Promotions (6/7, 86%) and sociability appeals (3/7, 43%) were common on brand websites. The small number of social media webpages in our sample used gendered marketing.
Conclusions:
URLs appearing on tobacco packs direct consumers to websites where users are exposed to marketing that highlights the "positive" contributions of tobacco companies on corporate websites, and extensive promotions and marketing appeals on brand websites and social media pages. It is essential that marketing regulations become more comprehensive and ban all protobacco communication, a policy that is in line with articles 5.3 and 13 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. For countries that already ban internet tobacco advertising, enforcement efforts should be strengthened. Tobacco companies' use of URLs on packs may also be compelling for plain packaging advocacy, where all branding is removed from the pack and large graphic health warning labels are the only communication on the tobacco packaging. Future research should consider including tobacco websites in marketing surveillance.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Minion Pro'; min-height: 14.0px} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; line-height: 10.1px; font: 10.0px 'Minion Pro'; color: #2d2829} span.s1 {font: 12.0px 'Minion Pro'; color: #000000} Bu araştırmada, internet aracılığıyla sanal toplulukların etnografik olarak incelenmesini sağlayan yeni bir nitel araştırma yöntemi olan netnografi yöntemi kullanılarak arabesk müzik ve Türk sanat müziği dinleyicilerinden oluşan sanal topluluklar incelenmektedir. Araştırmada, arabesk ve Türk sanat müziği dinleyicilerinin sanal topluluklardaki elektronik duvarlarda yer alan paylaşımları incelenerek, dinleyicilerin bu müzik türleri ile ilgili görüşleri, bu müzik türünü hangi sanatçılarla neden özdeşleştirdikleri keşfedilmeye çalışılmaktadır. Araştırmanın sonuçları müzik pazarlamacılarına, dinleyicilerinin ilgilerini daha iyi çekmelerini ve daha fazla dinleyiciye ulaşmalarını sağlayacak fikirler sunmaktadır.
Introduction:
The association between peer crowd identification and substance use is well documented among adolescents, but less is known about substance use among young adult peer crowds.
Methods:
This study leverages data from the Truth Initiative Young Adult Cohort Study (Wave 8, June-July 2015), a nationally representative cohort sample of young adults aged 18-34 years. The current cross-sectional analyses (conducted in 2018) focused on 1,341 individuals aged 18-24 years in this sample. Participants reported their peer crowd identification and current use of alcohol, marijuana, other drugs, and tobacco (cigarettes, little cigars/cigarillos, e-cigarettes, hookah, smokeless tobacco). Adjusted logistic regression models assessed associations between peer crowd identification and substance use.
Results:
In general, young adults who identified as homebody, young professional, or religious had lower odds of substance use than their counterparts. Young adults who identified as social/partier were more likely to be current users of alcohol, marijuana, any tobacco, cigarettes, and e-cigarettes than those who did not identify as social/partier. Those who identified as alternative were more likely to be current users of marijuana and other drugs than those not identified as alternative. Those who identified as country were more likely than those not identified as country to be current users of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Those who identified as hip hop were more likely to be current users of marijuana and e-cigarettes.
Conclusions:
Peer crowd identification is associated with substance use among young adults. These findings can help identify target populations for prevention and cessation interventions and inform intervention design and delivery.
Objectives:
To describe advertising tactics of cigarette, e-cigarette, little cigar/cigarillo and smokeless tobacco manufacturers.
Methods:
We conducted a content analysis of tobacco 827 ads run in the US in 2016. Ads were double coded by trained coders across ten domains: promotions, web/social media presence, use cues, warnings and disclaimers, descriptors, claims, activities, setting, imagery, and themes.
Results:
Cigarette ads relied on promotional tactics like discounts and sweepstakes and featured links to websites and mobile apps, all of which can increase brand loyalty and customer engagement. E-cigarette ads used tactics that appear to target new consumers, such as highlighting the product's qualities and modeling product use. Little cigar/cigarillo ads often positioned the product as social and featured music, urban and nightlife settings. Smokeless tobacco ads frequently featured themes, activities and settings stereotypically thought of as masculine.
Conclusions:
The tactics used to advertise tobacco products can help generate new consumers, encourage product/brand switching, and escalate use among current users. Understanding how different products are advertised can inform the Food and Drug Administration's regulatory efforts, and tobacco counter-marketing campaigns.
Importance
Hip-hop is the leading music genre in the United States and its fan base includes a large proportion of adolescents and young adults of all racial and ethnic groups, particularly minorities. The appearance of combustible and electronic tobacco and marijuana products, especially brand placement and use by popular and influential artists, may increase the risk of tobacco and marijuana use and decrease perceptions of harm.
Objective
To assess the prevalence of the appearance and use of combustible and electronic tobacco and marijuana products, including brand placement, in leading hip-hop songs.
Design, Setting, and Participants
Analysis of top 50 songs from 2013 to 2017 of Billboard magazine’s weekly Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs with videos that included the appearance or use of combustible tobacco and marijuana products (manufactured cigarettes, cigars, hookah or waterpipe, pipe, hand-rolled tobacco and marijuana products, marijuana buds); appearance of exhaled smoke or vapor without an identifiable source product; appearance or use of electronic tobacco and marijuana products (eg, electronic cigarettes); tobacco or marijuana brand placement; appearance or use of combustible and electronic tobacco and marijuana by main or featured artist. Data were collected from December 6, 2017, to June 4, 2018.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Prevalence of (1) appearance or use of combustible tobacco and marijuana products, (2) appearance of smoke or vapor, (3) appearance or use of electronic tobacco and marijuana products, (4) tobacco or marijuana brand placement, and (5) appearance or use of combustible and electronic tobacco and marijuana by main or featured artist. Probability of appearance or use of combustible and electronic tobacco and marijuana products by quartile of viewership of videos.
Results
The proportion of leading hip-hop videos containing combustible use, electronic use, or smoke or vapor ranged from 40.2% (76 of 189) in 2015, to 50.7% (102 of 201) in 2016. For each year, the leading category of combustible use was hand-rolled products. The appearance of branded products increased from 0% in 2013 (0 of 82) to 9.9% in 2017 (10 of 101) for combustible products, and from 25.0% in 2013 (3 of 12) to 87.5% in 2017 (14 of 16) for electronic products. The prevalence of combustible or electronic product use or exhaled smoke or vapor increased by quartile of total number of views: 41.9% (8700 to 19 million views) among songs in the first quartile of viewership and 49.7% among songs in the fourth quartile of viewership (112 million to 4 billion views).
Conclusions and Relevance
Combustible and electronic tobacco and marijuana use frequently occurred in popular hip-hop music videos. The genre’s broad appeal, use of branded products by influential artists, and rise of electronic product and marijuana use may contribute to a growing public health concern of tobacco and marijuana use.
While previous research has documented a relation between music and substance use among consumers, to date, there are no meta-analytic reviews of the literature, making our meta-analysis the first in this area. Results from 31 studies, yielding a total of 330,652, indicated that music had a significant effect on substance use, with both music format and genre being significant contributors. The effect of music on substance use also varied by substance type. In addition, participant biological sex and location of data collection were found to moderate the effect of music on substance use. Theoretical implications are discussed along with directions for future research.
Purpose:
Peer crowds are macro-level subcultures that share similarities across geographic areas. Over the past decade, dozens of studies have explored the association between adolescent peer crowds and risk behaviors, and how they can inform public health efforts. However, despite the interest, researchers have not yet reported on crowd size and risk levels from a representative sample, making it difficult for practitioners to apply peer crowd science to interventions. The current study reports findings from the first statewide representative sample of adolescent peer crowd identification and health behaviors.
Methods:
Weighted data were analyzed from the 2015 Virginia Youth Survey of Health Behaviors ( n = 4,367). Peer crowds were measured via the I-Base Survey™, a photo-based peer crowd survey instrument. Frequencies and confidence intervals of select behaviors including tobacco use, substance use, nutrition, physical activity, and violence were examined to identify high- and low-risk crowds. Logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios for each crowd and behavior.
Results:
Risky behaviors clustered in two peer crowds. Hip Hop crowd identification was associated with substance use, violence, and some depression and suicidal behaviors. Alternative crowd identification was associated with increased risk for some substance use behaviors, depression and suicide, bullying, physical inactivity, and obesity. Mainstream and, to a lesser extent, Popular, identities were associated with decreased risk for most behaviors.
Conclusions:
Findings from the first representative study of peer crowds and adolescent behavior identify two high-risk groups, providing critical insights for practitioners seeking to maximize public health interventions by targeting high-risk crowds.
As states increasingly liberalize marijuana laws, high-quality research is needed that will inform the public and policymakers about the health and societal impact of these laws. However, there are many challenges to studying marijuana policy, including the heterogeneity of the drug and its use, the variability in the laws and their implementation from state to state, the need to capture a wide variety of relevant outcomes, and the poorly understood influence of marijuana commercialization. Furthermore, current instruments generally fail to distinguish between types of users and lack accurate and detailed measures of use. This review provides a background on marijuana laws in the United States and an overview of existing policy research, discusses methodological considerations when planning analysis of state marijuana laws, and highlights specific topics needing further development and investigation.
Objective
Despite recent increases in little cigar and cigarillo (LCC) use—particularly among urban youth, African-Americans and Latinos—research on targeted strategies for marketing these products is sparse. Little is known about the amount or content of LCC messages users see or share on social media, a popular communication medium among youth and communities of colour.
Methods
Keyword rules were used to collect tweets related to LCCs from the Twitter Firehose posted in October 2014 and March–April 2015. Tweets were coded for promotional content, brand references, co-use with marijuana and subculture references (eg, rap/hip-hop, celebrity endorsements) and were classified as commercial and ‘organic’/non-commercial using a combination of machine learning methods, keyword algorithms and human coding. Metadata associated with each tweet were used to categorise users as influencers (1000 and more followers) and regular users (under 1000 followers).
Results
Keyword filters captured over 4 372 293 LCC tweets. Analyses revealed that 17% of account users posting about LCCs were influencers and 1% of accounts were overtly commercial. Influencers were more likely to mention LCC brands and post promotional messages. Approximately 83% of LCC tweets contained references to marijuana and 29% of tweets were memes. Tweets also contained references to rap/hip-hop lyrics and urban subculture.
Conclusions
Twitter is a major information-sharing and marketing platform for LCCs. Co-use of tobacco and marijuana is common and normalised on Twitter. The presence and broad reach of LCC messages on social media warrants urgent need for surveillance and serious attention from public health professionals and policymakers. Future tobacco use prevention initiatives should be adapted to ensure that they are inclusive of LCC use.
As limitations on traditional marketing tactics and scrutiny by tobacco control have increased, the tobacco industry has benefited from direct mail marketing which transmits marketing messages directly to carefully targeted consumers utilising extensive custom consumer databases. However, research in these areas has been limited. This is the first study to examine the development, purposes and extent of direct mail and customer databases.
We examined direct mail and database marketing by RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris utilising internal tobacco industry documents from the Legacy Tobacco Document Library employing standard document research techniques.
Direct mail marketing utilising industry databases began in the 1970s and grew from the need for a promotional strategy to deal with declining smoking rates, growing numbers of products and a cluttered media landscape. Both RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris started with existing commercial consumer mailing lists, but subsequently decided to build their own databases of smokers' names, addresses, brand preferences, purchase patterns, interests and activities. By the mid-1990s both RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris databases contained at least 30 million smokers' names each. These companies valued direct mail/database marketing's flexibility, efficiency and unique ability to deliver specific messages to particular groups as well as direct mail's limited visibility to tobacco control, public health and regulators.
Database marketing is an important and increasingly sophisticated tobacco marketing strategy. Additional research is needed on the prevalence of receipt and exposure to direct mail items and their influence on receivers' perceptions and smoking behaviours.
Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.
This article describes the tobacco industry's use of bars and nightclubs to encourage smoking among young adults.
Previously secret tobacco industry marketing documents were analyzed.
Tobacco industry bar and nightclub promotions in the 1980s and 1990s included aggressive advertising, tobacco brand--sponsored activities, and distribution of samples. Financial incentives for club owners and staff were used to encourage smoking through peer influence. Increased use of these strategies occurred concurrently with an increase in smoking among persons aged 18 through 24 years.
The tobacco industry's bar and nightclub promotions are not yet politically controversial and are not regulated by the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the industry and the states. Tobacco control advocates should include young adults in research and advocacy efforts and should design interventions to counter this industry strategy to solidify smoking patterns and recruit young adult smokers.
To examine the tobacco industry's use of bar promotions, including their target groups, objectives, strategies, techniques, and results.
Over 2000 tobacco industry documents available as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement were reviewed on the internet at several key web sites using keyword searches that included "bar", "night", "pub", "party", and "club". The majority of the documents deal with the US market, with a minor emphasis on Canadian and overseas markets.
The documents indicate that bar promotions are important for creating and maintaining brand image, and are generally targeted at a young adult audience. Several measures of the success of these promotions are used, including number of individuals exposed to the promotion, number of promotional items given away, and increased sales of a particular brand during and after the promotion.
Bar promotions position cigarettes as being part of a glamorous lifestyle that includes attendance at nightclubs and bars, and appear to be highly successful in increasing sales of particular brands.
To describe the development of the relationship between the tobacco industry and the entertainment industry.
Review of previously secret tobacco industry documents available on the internet.
Both the entertainment and tobacco industries recognised the high value of promotion of tobacco through entertainment media. The 1980s saw undertakings by four tobacco companies, Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds (RJR), American Tobacco Company, and Brown and Williamson to place their products in movies. RJR and Philip Morris also worked to place products on television at the beginning of the decade. Each company hired aggressive product placement firms to represent its interests in Hollywood. These firms placed products and tobacco signage in positive situations that would encourage viewers to use tobacco and kept brands from being used in negative situations. At least one of the companies, RJR, undertook an extensive campaign to hook Hollywood on tobacco by providing free cigarettes to actors on a monthly basis. Efforts were also made to place favourable articles relating to product use by actors in national print media and to encourage professional photographers to take pictures of actors smoking specific brands. The cigar industry started developing connections with the entertainment industry beginning in the 1980s and paid product placements were made in both movies and on television. This effort did not always require money payments from the tobacco industry to the entertainment industry, suggesting that simply looking for cash payoffs may miss other important ties between the tobacco and entertainment industries.
The tobacco industry understood the value of placing and encouraging tobacco use in films, and how to do it. While the industry claims to have ended this practice, smoking in motion pictures increased throughout the 1990s and remains a public health problem.
Through third party advertising of events such as Formula One and CART auto racing, tobacco brand names continue to attain visibility to a vast audience.
This commentary looks at the marketing menthol cigarettes to various targeted populations—women, middle school youth and Asian/Pacific
Islander immigrants as well as African Americans. The authors take the position that “ethnic awareness” as evidenced in the
advertising of menthol cigarette brands to African Americans is just one of four distinct messages that tobacco marketers
have used for what they have termed the “coolness” category. The other messages are: healthy/medicinal; fresh/refreshing/cool/clean/crisp;
and youthfulness/silliness and fun.
The commentary poses three questions: (a) Are new population segments being steered toward menthol cigarettes using marketing
approaches that are similar to what has occurred with African Americans and women? (b) What exactly is the relationship between
the marketing of menthol cigarettes and subsequent use of menthol tobacco products by specific population subgroups? (c) Are
there lessons to be learned from the marketing of menthol cigarettes that can be used to improve the public health and medical
communities' smoking cessation and tobacco use prevention communications efforts?
Internal documents show that British American Tobacco's racing team has been successful in promoting the company's products, especially in emerging countries. Tougher worldwide action is needed to counter the tobacco industry's influence in Formula One.
To review tobacco company strategies of using youth smoking prevention programmes to counteract the Malaysian government's tobacco control legislation and efforts in conducting research on youth to market to them.
Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private internal industry documents. Search terms included Malay, cmtm, jaycees, YAS, and direct marketing; 195 relevant documents were identified for this paper.
Industry internal documents reveal that youth anti-smoking programmes were launched to offset the government's tobacco control legislation. The programme was seen as a strategy to lobby key politicians and bureaucrats for support in preventing the passage of legislation. However, the industry continued to conduct research on youth, targeted them in marketing, and considered the teenage market vital for its survival. Promotional activities targeting youth were also carried out such as sports, notably football and motor racing, and entertainment events and cash prizes. Small, affordable packs of cigarettes were crucial to reach new smokers.
The tobacco industry in Malaysia engaged in duplicitous conduct in regard to youth. By buying into the youth smoking issue it sought to move higher on the moral playing field and strengthen its relationship with government, while at the same time continuing to market to youth. There is no evidence that industry youth smoking prevention programmes were effective in reducing smoking; however, they were effective in diluting the government's tobacco control legislation.
Recently, the tobacco industry has focused marketing efforts on young adults through bar and club promotions, such as advertising and distribution of free cigarettes in these settings. This study estimates the fraction of the California young adult population that might be exposed and potentially influenced by these efforts.
Data were from 9364 young adult (18-29 years) respondents to the cross sectional population based 2002 California Tobacco Survey. As background, we analysed social smoking (only smoke with other smokers), and enjoyment of smoking while drinking. Our main focus was on bar and club attendance, what was observed in bars and clubs, and how this might differ according to respondents' risk for future smoking.
Social smokers comprised 30.0 (2.2)% of all current smokers, including experimenters. Nearly three quarters (74.5 (2.3)%) of current smokers/experimenters said they enjoyed smoking while drinking. About one third (33.8 (1.2)%) of all young adults said they attended bars and clubs at least sometimes; attendance was significantly higher among smokers and those at risk for future smoking. Close to 60% (57.9 (2.2)%) of bar and club attenders reported seeing cigarette advertising and promotions in these settings. Again, smokers and those at risk were more likely to report seeing such advertising and promotions in these settings.
About 20% of all young adults and about 30% of those at risk for future smoking (including current smokers) were exposed to tobacco advertising and promotions in bars and clubs. These California results may be conservative, but nonetheless indicate that the group potentially influenced is sizable.
To assess the impact of promotions on cigarette sales in Taiwan after the cigarette market opened to foreign companies, and to assess whether young smokers were targeted by these companies.
Trends in cigarette sales, advertising expenditure, brand preference, and cigarette consumption were examined for the period following the 1987 opening of the cigarette market. Tobacco industry internal documents from Legacy Tobacco Documents Library of the University of California, San Francisco, were searched for corporate strategies on promoting youth consumption in Taiwan.
Between 1995 and 2000, the inflation adjusted advertising expenditures by all foreign firms increased fourfold. Much of the expenditure was spent on brand stretching the Mild Seven (Japan) and Davidoff (Germany) brands in television advertising. By 2000, the market share of foreign cigarettes exceeded domestics by three to one among young smokers and the leading brand preferred by this segment shifted from the most popular domestic brand (Long Life) to a foreign brand (Mild Seven). Furthermore, there was a sudden increase of 16.4% in smoking rates among young adults (from 36.1% to 42.0%) during the first five years after the market opened. This was also accompanied by increased per capita cigarette consumption and decreased age of smoking initiation. Industry documents confirmed the use of strategies targeted at the young. In particular, establishing new point of sale (POS) retail stores or promotional activities at POS were found to be more effective than advertising in magazines.
This study provides evidence that advertising increased with increased competition following the market opening, which, in turn, spurred cigarette sales and consumption. Foreign tobacco companies have deliberately targeted youth in Taiwan and succeeded in gaining three quarters of their cigarette purchases within a decade. Expanding youth consumption will incur excessive future health care costs borne by society. Foreign tobacco companies should be obligated to reimburse these expenses through higher tariffs on cigarettes.
Regional studies have linked exposure to movie smoking with adolescent smoking. We examined this association in a representative US sample.
We conducted a random-digit-dial survey of 6522 US adolescents aged 10 to 14 years. Using previously validated methods, we estimated exposure to movie smoking, in 532 recent box-office hits, and examined its relation with adolescents having ever tried smoking a cigarette.
The distributions of demographics and census region in the unweighted sample were almost identical to 2000 US Census estimates, confirming representativeness. Overall, 10% of the population had tried smoking. Quartile (Q) of movie smoking exposure was significantly associated with the prevalence of smoking initiation: 0.02 of adolescents in Q1 had tried smoking; 0.06 in Q2; 0.11 in Q3; and 0.22 in Q4. This association did not differ significantly by race/ethnicity or census region. After controlling for sociodemographics, friend/sibling/parent smoking, school performance, personality characteristics, and parenting style, the adjusted odds ratio for having tried smoking were 1.7 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1, 2.7) for Q2, 1.8 (95% CI: 1.2, 2.9) for Q3, and 2.6 (95% CI: 1.7, 4.1) for Q4 compared with adolescents in Q1. The covariate-adjusted attributable fraction was 0.38 (95% CI: 0.20, 0.56), suggesting that exposure to movie smoking is the primary independent risk factor for smoking initiation in US adolescents in this age group.
Smoking in movies is a risk factor for smoking initiation among US adolescents. Limiting exposure of young adolescents to movie smoking could have important public health implications.
Despite voluntary restrictions prohibiting direct and indirect cigarette marketing to youth and paid product placement, tobacco use remains prevalent in movies. This article presents a systematic review of the evidence on the nature and effect of smoking in the movies on adolescents (and others).
We performed a comprehensive literature review.
We identified 40 studies. Smoking in the movies decreased from 1950 to approximately 1990 and then increased rapidly. In 2002, smoking in movies was as common as it was in 1950. Movies rarely depict the negative health outcomes associated with smoking and contribute to increased perceptions of smoking prevalence and the benefits of smoking. Movie smoking is presented as adult behavior. Exposure to movie smoking makes viewers' attitudes and beliefs about smoking and smokers more favorable and has a dose-response relationship with adolescent smoking behavior. Parental restrictions on R-rated movies significantly reduces youth exposure to movie smoking and subsequent smoking uptake. Beginning in 2002, the total amount of smoking in movies was greater in youth-rated (G/PG/PG-13) films than adult-rated (R) films, significantly increasing adolescent exposure to movie smoking. Viewing antismoking advertisements before viewing movie smoking seems to blunt the stimulating effects of movie smoking on adolescent smoking.
Strong empirical evidence indicates that smoking in movies increases adolescent smoking initiation. Amending the movie-rating system to rate movies containing smoking as "R" should reduce adolescent exposure to smoking and subsequent smoking.
Today, over 70% of African American smokers prefer menthol cigarettes, compared with 30% of White smokers. This unique social phenomenon was principally occasioned by the tobacco industry's masterful manipulation of the burgeoning Black, urban, segregated, consumer market in the 1960s. Through the use of television and other advertising media, coupled with culturally tailored images and messages, the tobacco industry "African Americanized" menthol cigarettes. The tobacco industry successfully positioned mentholated products, especially Kool, as young, hip, new, and healthy. During the time that menthols were gaining a large market share in the African American community, the tobacco industry donated funds to African American organizations hoping to blunt the attack on their products. Many of the findings in this article are drawn from the tobacco industry documents disclosed following the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998. After a short review of the origins and growth of menthols, this article examines some key social factors that, when considered together, led to disproportionate use of mentholated cigarettes by African Americans compared with other Americans. Unfortunately, the long-term impact of the industry's practice in this community may be partly responsible for the disproportionately high tobacco-related disease and mortality among African Americans generally and African American males particularly.
Public Culture 15.2 (2003) 295-322
Although most often considered with alcohol in policy debates, tobacco more readily compares with sugar or coffee in its ubiquitous and continual availability (and until recently, acceptability) to all classes. The intimate pleasures of the cigarette—from the flip-top box to the smoker's perfected flick of an ash to the excuse to ask a stranger for a light—should not be underestimated. The cigarette's social rituals have made it truly iconic of popular culture throughout the twentieth century. Consider its adaptability: readily slipped into a pocket or behind an ear, it is a means to a private or social moment. Useful as a lift or a sedative, the cigarette stands in as a snack, prop, drug, or coping mechanism. The commodity achieves its most refined, profitable, and complete incarnation in the cigarette, with its inexpensive, efficient, but short-lived gratification. Consumed nearly completely, literally disappearing into a puff of smoke (the butt easily disposed of under a shoe), the cigarette's solitary fault lies in the fact that, over time, the cumulative effects of its debris slowly and irrevocably sicken and kill its consuming host.
In the legal framing of capitalism in the United States, this one flaw—that cigarettes injure when used as intended—should be enough to not only regulate the cigarette but also ban it outright. In the United States, product liability law is the imperfect but established infrastructure by which Americans can claim their right not to be injured by the objects they purchase. But despite three decades of litigation, it is only since the late 1990s that people have been able to consider themselves injured by cigarettes in the legal sense. This change is due to the work of a recent wave of litigants who have shown successfully that tobacco corporations falsely advertised, defectively designed, and knowingly sold an addictive product. Although dismissed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2001, one of the most interesting of the recent spate of lawsuits was brought in Pennsylvania on behalf of black smokers. In this suit, Brown v. Philip Morris, Inc., the Reverend Jesse Brown attempted to highlight the economic racism of cigarette marketing through a civil rights claim. The Brown complaint stated that "[the] Defendants have for many years targeted African Americans and their communities with specific advertising to lure them into using mentholated tobacco products." Brown raised the issues of niche marketing, discrimination, and the "staggering loss of life, premature disability, disease, illness, and economic loss" that have resulted from "the Tobacco Companies' intentional and racially discriminating fraudulent course of misconduct."
The Brown complaint contended that mentholated cigarettes (also known as menthols) contained enhanced dangers over other cigarettes. First, the complaint explained that the ingredient menthol contains compounds such as benzopyrene, which are carcinogenic when smoked. Second, it argued that mentholated cigarettes contain higher nicotine and tar levels than nonmentholated versions.Third, Brown claimed that menthol encourages deeper and longer inhalation of tobacco smoke, increasing the addictive properties of the cigarette and decreasing the lung's ability to rid itself of carcinogenic components of smoke. According to evidence submitted in Brown, mentholated cigarettes account for between 60 and 75 percent of the cigarettes smoked by African Americans—and 90 percent of African American youth who smoke, smoke menthols. Thus, Brown claimed, as a result of the increased danger of mentholated cigarettes and "a conspiracy of deception and misrepresentation against the African American public," African Americans have disproportionately suffered the injury, disability, and death that invariably follow from smoking mentholated cigarettes.
It is clear that cigarettes have had a devastating impact on the African American community: tobacco smoking is the number one killer and disabler of African Americans. It results in more deaths among black Americans than homicide, car accidents, drug abuse, and AIDS combined. It intensifies serious health problems that disproportionately affect black Americans: hypertension, diabetes, low birth weight, infant mortality, and hazardous occupational exposures. Blacks have a higher incidence than whites of tobacco-related illnesses, such as cancers of the lung, esophagus, oral cavity, and larynx; heart disease; and cerebrovascular disease. In 1992 lung cancer became the leading...
Cigarette smoking might be equally regarded as a symptom of a society at odds with itself or as a cause of disease per se; at either level, it has earned the reputation of public health enemy number one. Smoking is also a crucial example of how the health of the black population has worsened under the guise of social advancement. Blacks now suffer the highest rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) and lung cancer of any population group in this country. This fact has been obscured by the tendency in medicine to focus attention on typical black diseases such as hemoglobinopathies and hypertension.
Among all racial and ethnic groups in the USA, African Americans bear the greatest burden from tobacco related disease. The tobacco industry has been highly influential in the African American community for decades, providing funding and other resources to community leaders and emphasising publicly its support for civil rights causes and groups, while ignoring the negative health effects of its products on those it claims to support. However, the industry's private business reasons for providing such support were unknown.
To understand how and for what purposes the tobacco industry sought to establish and maintain relationships with African American leaders.
Review and analysis of over 700 previously secret internal tobacco industry documents available on the internet.
The tobacco industry established relationships with virtually every African American leadership organisation and built longstanding social connections with the community, for three specific business reasons: to increase African American tobacco use, to use African Americans as a frontline force to defend industry policy positions, and to defuse tobacco control efforts.
As the tobacco industry expands its global reach, public health advocates should anticipate similar industry efforts to exploit the vulnerabilities of marginalised groups. The apparent generosity, inclusion, and friendship proffered by the industry extract a price from groups in the health of their members. Helping groups anticipate such efforts, confront industry co-optation, and understand the hidden costs of accepting tobacco industry largesse should be part of worldwide tobacco control efforts.
To investigate non-point-of-sale cigarette marketing in Australia, one of the "darkest" markets in the world.
Analysis of 172 tobacco industry documents.
The tobacco industry has continued to market their products despite severe restrictions on legal marketing activity. They made careful plans to circumvent regulation well in advance. In preparation for bans, they chose and strengthened existing brands to enable their continued success in a dark market and prepared the consumer for bans by increasing their spending on below the line activities. Bans reduced the industry's effectiveness and efficiency. After bans new brand launches stopped: instead key existing brands were strengthened via alterations to the product, line extensions, and stretching loopholes in the legislation as far as possible. In line with the general trend towards integrated marketing, a range of activities have been used in combination, including guerrilla marketing, advertising in imported international magazines, altering the pack, sponsorships, brand stretching, event promotions, lifestyle premiums, and the development of corporate websites.
The tobacco industry acknowledges that marketing restrictions have an impact, validating their continued use in tobacco control. The industry is extremely creative in circumventing these marketing restrictions, requiring tobacco marketing regulations to be informed by marketing expertise, regularly updated, and to adopt the broadest possible scope. Tobacco control advocates, particularly those communicating with young people, could learn from the creativity of the tobacco industry.
Today, over 70% of African American smokers prefer menthol cigarettes, compared with 30% of White smokers. This unique social phenomenon was principally occasioned by the tobacco industry's masterful manipulation of the burgeoning Black, urban, segregated, consumer market in the 1960s. Through the use of television and other advertising media, coupled with culturally tailored images and messages, the tobacco industry “African Americanized” menthol cigarettes. The tobacco industry successfully positioned mentholated products, especially Kool, as young, hip, new, and healthy. During the time that menthols were gaining a large market share in the African American community, the tobacco industry donated funds to African American organizations hoping to blunt the attack on their products. Many of the findings in this article are drawn from the tobacco industry documents disclosed following the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998. After a short review of the origins and growth of menthols, this article examines some key social factors that, when considered together, led to disproportionate use of mentholated cigarettes by African Americans compared with other Americans. Unfortunately, the long-term impact of the industry's practice in this community may be partly responsible for the
disproportionately high tobacco-related disease and mortality among African Americans generally and African American males particularly.
To explore tobacco industry accounts of its use of indirect tobacco advertising and trademark diversification (TMD) in Malaysia, a nation with a reputation for having an abundance of such advertising.
Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private tobacco industry internal documents made available through the Master Settlement Agreement.
132 documents relevant to the topic were reviewed. TMD efforts were created to advertise cigarettes after advertising restrictions on direct advertising were imposed in 1982. To build public credibility the tobacco companies set up small companies and projected them as entities independent of tobacco. Each brand selected an activity or event such as music, travel, fashion, and sports that best suited its image. RJ Reynolds sponsored music events to advertise its Salem brand while Philip Morris used Marlboro World of Sports since advertising restrictions prevented the use of the Marlboro man in broadcast media. Despite a ban on tobacco advertisements in the mass media, tobacco companies were the top advertisers in the country throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The media's dependence on advertising revenue and support from the ruling elite played a part in delaying efforts to ban indirect advertising.
Advertising is crucial for the tobacco industry. When faced with an advertising ban they created ways to circumvent it, such as TMDs.
To describe Philip Morris' global market research and international promotional strategies targeting young adults.
Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents.
Philip Morris pursued standardised market research and strategic marketing plans in different regions throughout the world using research on young adults with three principle foci: lifestyle/psychographic research, brand studies, and advertising/communication effectiveness. Philip Morris identified core similarities in the lifestyles and needs of young consumers worldwide, such as independence, hedonism, freedom, and comfort. In the early 1990s Philip Morris adopted standardised global marketing efforts, creating a central advertising production bank and guidelines for brand images and promotions, but allowing regional managers to create regionally appropriate individual advertisements.
Values and lifestyles play a central role in the global marketing of tobacco to young adults. Worldwide counter marketing initiatives, coupled with strong, coherent global marketing policies such as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, are needed to break associations between young adult values and tobacco brands. As globalisation promotes the homogenisation of values and lifestyles, tobacco control messages that resonate with young adults in one part of the world may appeal to young adults in other countries. Successful tobacco control messages that appeal to young people, such as industry denormalisation, may be expanded globally with appropriate tailoring to appeal to regional values.
This paper explores the role of changing images of drinking and alcoholic beverage use in rap music from its beginnings in the United States in the late 1970s to the late 1990s.
A sample of 341 rap music song lyrics released from 1979 to 1997 were selected using Billboard and Gavin rating charts. Song lyrics were coded for music genres, alcohol beverage types and brand names, drinking behaviors, drinking contexts, intoxication, attitudes towards alcohol and consequences of drinking.
From 1979 to 1997, songs with references to alcohol increased fivefold (from 8 to 44%); those exhibiting positive attitudes rose from 43% to 73%; and brand name mentions increased from 46% to 71%. There were also significant increases in songs mentioning champagne and liquor (mainly expensive brand names) when comparing songs released after 1994 with those from previous years. In addition, there were significant increases in references to alcohol to signify glamour and wealth, and using alcohol with drugs and for recreational purposes. The findings also showed that alcohol use in rap music was much more likely to result in positive than negative consequences.
Many of these findings are consistent with the idea that rap music has been profoundly affected by commercial forces and the marketing of alcoholic beverages. In addition, it is possible that the increase in references to alcoholic beverages in rap music, particularly spirits, is a reflection of a broader advertising culture which increasingly associates African Americans with alcohol use.
4 Rosin L. Radio's Future: Today's 12 to 24 Year-Olds
- Middletown
Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1994. 4 Rosin L. Radio's Future: Today's 12 to 24 Year-Olds 2000.
Kool: 330000-800000 A Retrospective View of Kool. Book I: The TextBates No.670917650/7794 Kool Cigarettes—USA: A Case History Kool: The Revitalization Of An Image
- Reid J History
- Mentholated Cigarettes
- Cunningham
- Walsh
Reid J. A History of Mentholated Cigarettes ''This Spud's For You''. Mar 1995. Bates No. 2057764407/4420. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ lfz83c00. 18 Cunningham & Walsh. Kool: 330000-800000 A Retrospective View of Kool. Book I: The Text, 10 Nov 1980.Bates No.670917650/7794.http:// legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/aqy60f00. 19 Wair A. Ogilvy & Mather. Kool Cigarettes—USA: A Case History, 06 Mar 1975.Bates No.500313473-500313576.http://bat.library.ucsf.edu//tid/ csb10a99. 20 Cunningham & Walsh. Kool: The Revitalization Of An Image. 1 Jul 1981. Bates No. 664009197/9203. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/leb91d00. 21 Brown & Williamson. Kool Analysis. Kool I Overview. 1982. Bates No. 503534465-503534470. http://tobaccodocuments.org/rjr/503534465-4470.html. 22 Pollay RW, Lee JS, Carter-Whitney D. Separate, but not equal: racial segmentation in cigarette advertising. Journal of Advertising 1992;21:45–57.
Kool Music: Extension of a Property, 1980 (est)Bates No.677042516-677042534 Kool Music Form Study
- Johnston
23 Johnston NJ. The Success Of Brown & Williamson. 5 Aug 1966. Bates No. 1001889205/9210. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ecw67e00. 24 Broecker B. Umbrella Music Strategy. 16 Jul 1981. Bates No. 685041995/ 2001. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/tir40f00. 25 Anon. Brown & Williamson. Kool Music: Extension of a Property, 1980 (est).Bates No.677042516-677042534.http://tobaccodocuments.org/bw/ 1167232.html. 26 Anon. Kool Music Property. 1981. Bates No. 677247107/7110. http:// legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/tyu63f00. 27 Lewis L. Kool Music Form Study. 10 Mar 1983. Bates No. 677040892/0913. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/czj13f00. 28 Ball LB. Kool Advertising Research—Japan (Proj. #82-37). 10 Jan 1983. Bates No. 660912788/2794. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ixh70f00. 29 Brand I, Medicus R. Kool Music Creative Research—Final Report 1982-141k.
Big Tobacco must stop targeting kids Roll Call US Department of Health and Human Services. Tobacco use among U.S. racial/ethnic minority groups: African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Hispanics. A report of the Surgeon General
- R Durbin
- Wyden
Durbin R, Wyden R. Big Tobacco must stop targeting kids. Roll Call, 1998 23 March. 9 US Department of Health and Human Services. Tobacco use among U.S. racial/ethnic minority groups: African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Hispanics. A report of the Surgeon General, 1998. Atlanta, Georgia: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health, 1998, (US Government Printing Office Publication No S/N
Music and identity among European youth Music, culture and society in Europe—Part II of European Music Office, Music in Europe
- K Roe
Roe K. Music and identity among European youth. In: Rutten P, eds. Music, culture and society in Europe—Part II of European Music Office, Music in Europe.Brussels, 1996:85–97.
Selling cigarettes in Asia. The New York Times
- Anon
7 Anon. Selling cigarettes in Asia. The New York Times, 1997 10 September. A22.
A History of Mentholated Cigarettes “This Spud’s For You
- J Reid
Umbrella Music Strategy
- B Broecker
Kool Strategic Platform For International Revitalization And Worldwide Image Management
- Anon
Kool Rider Capmapign Evolution Proposal
- Doyle Dane Bernbach
Building strong brands
- D A Aaker
Marketing Street Culture: Bringing Hip-Hop Style to the Mainstream
- M Spiegler
Radio’s Future: Today’s 12 to 24 Year-Olds
- L Rosin
Big Tobacco must stop targeting kids. Roll Call
- R Durbin
- R Wyden
Kool Cigarettes-USA: A Case History
- A Wair
- Ogilvy
- Mather
Kool Music Form Study
- L Lewis
840000 Kool Van Sampling Program (“Kool Music on Tour
- C Lomicka
Kool Music Program-Background Information
- Anon Brown
- Williamson
An Assessment of the Kool Music Creative Campaign
- I Brand
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation “930000-970000” Corporate Plan
- R Pritchard
Memorandum in support of plaintiff’s motion to enforce the Master Settlement Agreement and consent decree and for sanctions against defendant Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co
- Plaintiff V State Of Maryland
- Philip Morris Incorporated
Court Snuffs “Kool Mixx
- Anon
Music, culture and society in Europe-Part II of European Music Office
- K Roe
Clearing the smoke: Assessing the science base for tobacco harm reduction
- Institute Of Medicine
The Success Of Brown & Williamson
- N J Johnston
Kool Advertising Research-Japan (Proj. #82-37)
- L B Ball