Marketing for a Tobacco-Free Future

As cliché as this may sound, millennials are the future.  In the year 2000, 23 percent of the teenage population smoked cigarettes.  14 years later, the original 23 percent decreased to 9 percent. This decrease is significant but still not enough. Additionally, there are newer tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes that are still fueling this problem. The slightest things, such as seeing celebrities smoking, influence our youth population. These influences can extend past he simple things and can be blamed on peer pressure or even role models.

Not all teens take the time to do any research before putting harmful chemicals in their bodies.  On average, those that ingest harmful chemicals die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.¹   Smokers are prone to their skin aging faster, which means more wrinkles at an earlier age and for the generation of the “selfies”, it’s hard to believe my peers would feed into risking a greater probability of damaging their image. 

 An estimated 1.5 million packs of cigarettes are purchased for minors annually¹, so adults are contributing 30 million cigarettes to young people that can’t even purchase cigarettes for themselves!  We as a population must do better.  It is believed that as generations progress, they are living longer; however, this will not be the case if our youth continue to experiment with harmful, dangerous, extremely addictive, and deadly tobacco products.

When you consider the implications of this harmful habit from a marketer’s standpoint, advertising against tobacco is working. At Advantage Communications Inc., we execute innovative ideas that bring awareness to the dangers of tobacco products and encourages users to quit through the award-winning Stamp Out Smoking campaign.  This campaign seeks to be culturally relevant in communicating the ills of tobacco. Over the years we have seen smoking rates for youth and women significantly decline.

 As marketers, we must evolve and continue to innovate in the public health space and innovative ideas that will encourage tobacco users to quit and encourage their peers that use tobacco products to quit as well.  We can create an anti-tobacco movement!

Written by Michael Frank Steele, Marketing Intern, Advantage Communications, Inc.

Sources:

1.     https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-teen-smoking

2.     http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/?mobile=nocontent