I was reading my classmate, Lauren Telford’s blog post titled, “ Tobacco Marketing: The Smokey Shade of the Grey Area”. Lauren goes over how advertisements and marketing for tabacco products and cigarettes is unethical, misleading and downright dangerous. 399 smokers die daily in the US from these products, and so the obvious question is, to what extent did Marketing campaigns contribute to these deaths? Well, Lauren states that within 1 year, from 1954 to 1955, there was a 3241% increase in Marlboro sales, when Marlboro introduced the “Marlboro Cowboy”. The tobacco industry is now forced to put labels on their cigarette packages that warn users of the dangerous of smoking. Nevertheless, it seems even with the warning labels, and the common knowledge that smoking kills, many of today’s youth are still inclined to try it and become habitual smokers for the rest of their lives..
I agree with Lauren that ethical norms and regulations should be enforced when it comes to advertising dangerous products such as those implemented by the AMA, American Marketing Association. However, to counter the marketing efforts of the powerful Tobacco Industry, and the idea that smoking is cool, I feel that counter-ads can be an alternative solution… Check out this one below..
