Nicotine marketing

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Tobacco advertising is the promotion of tobacco use (typically smoking) by the tobacco industry through a variety of media. The tobacco industry also commonly uses sponsorship, particularly of sporting events. It is one of the most highly-regulated forms of marketing, along with alcohol advertising, and is banned in many countries.

Campaign intentions

Joe Camel was part of a campaign to attract younger smokers

As with all advertising, tobacco advertising has two broad categories of opportunities. The first is to stimulate primary demand which is demand for tobacco products rather than demand for specific brands. In developing countries this is particularly important where multinational tobacco companies are seeking to induce experimentation in tobacco products (mainly cigarettes) amongst non-smokers and, especially, to stimulate this initial consumer demand in the direction of international brands instead of local products. The second opportunity for such advertising is to increase brand and customer loyalty. One of the original forms of this was the inclusion of cigarette cards, a collectible set of ephemera.

Target markets

The intended audience of the tobacco advertising campaigns have changed throughout the years, with some brands being specifically targeted towards a particular demographic. The Joe Camel campaign in the United States, conceived by Reynolds American Inc., was a cartoon mascot created allegedly to attract younger smokers to the Camel brand. Under pressure from various anti-smoking groups, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Congress the campaign ended on 10 July 1997.

Tobacco companies have frequently targeted the female market, seeing it as a potential growth area as the largest market segment has traditionally been male. The introduction of the 1960s Virginia Slims brand, and in particular the "You’ve Come a Long Way Baby" campaign, was specifically aimed at increasing the number of women that smoked. [1]

Budgets

Tobacco companies have had particularly large budgets for their advertising campaigns. The Federal Trade Commission claimed that cigarette manufacturers spent $8.24 billion on advertising and promotion in 1999, the highest amount ever. The increase, despite restrictions on the advertising in most countries, was an attempt at appealing to a younger audience, including multi-purchase offers and giveaways such as hats and lighters, along with the more traditional store and magazine advertising. [2]

Marketing consultants ACNielsen announced that, during the period September 2001 to August 2002, tobacco companies advertising in the UK spent £25 million, excluding sponsorship and indirect advertising, broken down as follows:

  • £11 million on press advertising
  • £13.2 million on billboards
  • £714,550 on radio advertising
  • £106,253 on direct mail advertising

Figures from around that time also estimated that the companies spent £8m a year sponsoring sporting events and teams (excluding Formula One) and a further £70m on Formula One in the UK. [3]

Advertising around the world

Many governments now force tobacco packaging to carry health warnings

The European Union and World Health Organization (WHO) have both specified that the advertising of tobacco should not be allowed. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which came into effect on 27 February 2005, requires that all of the 168 countries that agreed to the treaty ban tobacco advertising unless their constitution forbade it.

European Union

The European Union Tobacco Advertising Directive took effect in July 2005. This EU Directive bans tobacco advertising in the print media, on radio and over the Internet. The directive does not include advertising in cinemas and on billboards or using merchandising – or tobacco sponsorship of cultural and sporting events which are purely local, with participants coming from only one Member State [4]. A number of EU Member States, including Finland, Ireland, Portugal and the UK, already have wide ranging tobacco advertising bans in place. Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Hungary had as of July 2006 not transposed the Directive into national bills [5].

Tobacco advertising on television has been banned in the EU since the early 1990s. In 2003, the European Union halted the branding of cigarettes as "light" or "mild", saying that this misleads consumers about the dangers of smoking. Stark health warnings such as "Smoking Kills" must now cover at least 30 percent of the front of each packet and 40 percent of the back, and an even greater area where messages are printed in more than one national language. [6]

United Kingdom

The first calls to restrict advertising came in 1962 from the Royal College of Physicians, who highlighted the health problems and recommended stricter laws on the sale and advertising of tobacco products. In 1971, an agreement between the government and the tobacco industry saw the inclusion of health warnings on all cigarette packets. All television commercials for cigarettes were banned on 1 August 1965, although commercials for loose tobacco and cigars continued until 1991.

Non-television advertising campaigns were still allowed in the UK but came under stricter guidelines in 1986, which in particular, prevented adverts fom actually showing a person smoking. The tobacco producers responded with increasingly indirect and abstract campaigns, among which those of Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut became particularly recognisable.

As part of their 1997 election campaign, the Labour Party pledged to ban all advertising of tobacco products. This legislation was passed as the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 [7], which banned most remaining forms of advertising according to the following timescale:

Date What was banned
14 February 2003 General advertising
14 May 2003 Promotions
30 July 2003 Sponsorship of sporting events within the UK
May 2004 Particular advertisements in tobacconists
21 December 2004 Large adverts in shops, pubs and clubs
31 July 2005 Sponsorship of excepted global events; brandsharing

Several exemptions from this legislation remain:

  • Advertisements that appear within the tobacco industry
  • Advertisements in publications that are not primarily aimed at a British audience
  • Advertisements in pubs, clubs and shops, as long as the advert's total size does not exceed that of an A5 piece of paper, with 30% of that being taken up by government health warnings. [8]
  • Advertisements other than those for cigarettes or hand-rolling tobacco within specialist tobacconists if the sale of cigars, snuff, pipe tobacco and smoking accessories accounts for over 50% of their sales
  • Direct mail that has been specifically requested

While cigarette vending machines are still allowed in licensed premises they are now only allowed to display a picture of what is available (one image per brand) and no advertisements can be included on the machine.

Famous campaigns include "You're never alone with a Strand", which led to Strand Cigarettes being taken off the market, and "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet".

United States

File:1978 virginia slims ad.jpg
The Virginia Slims cigarette brand marketed to women with the slogan "You've come a long way, baby!" from the early 1970s until the late 1990s. The ad seen here is from 1978.

In the United States, in the 1950s and 1960s, cigarette brands were frequently sponsors of television shows—most notably shows such as To Tell the Truth and I've Got a Secret. One of the most famous television jingles of the era came from an advertisement for Winston cigarettes. The slogan "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!" proved to be catchy, and is still quoted today. Another popular slogan from the 1960s was "Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!," which was used to advertise Tareyton cigarettes.

In June 1967, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that programs broadcast on a television station that discussed smoking and health were insufficient to offset the effects of paid advertisements that were broadcast for a five to ten minutes each day. "We hold that the fairness doctrine is applicable to such advertisements" the Commission said. The FCC decision, upheld by the courts, essentially required television stations to air anti-smoking advertisements at no cost to the organisations providing such advertisements.

In April 1970, Congress passed a law banning the advertising of tobacco products on television and radio starting on January 2, 1971. [9] The Virginia Slims brand was in the last commercial shown. Smokeless tobacco ads, on the other hand, remained on the air until 1986.

After 1971, most tobacco advertising was done in magazines and on billboards. Since the introduction of the Federal Cigarette Labelling and Advertising Act all packaging and advertisements must display a health warning from the Surgeon General. In November 2003, tobacco companies and magazine publishers agreed to cease the placement of advertisements in school library editions of four magazines with a large group of young readers (Time, People, Sports Illustrated and Newsweek) [10].

The first known advertisement was for the snuff and tobacco products of P. Lorillard and Company and was placed in the New York daily paper in 1789. Advertising was an emerging concept, and tobacco-related adverts were not seen as any different to those for other products—their negative impact on health was unknown at the time. Local and regional newspapers were used because of the small-scale production and transportation of these goods. The first real brand name to become known on a bigger scale was "Bull Durham" which emerged in 1868, with the advertising placing the emphasise on how easy it was "to roll your own" [11].

The development of colour lithography in the late 1870s allowed the companies to create attractive images to better present their products. This led to the printing of pictures onto the cigarette cards, previously only used to stiffen the packaging but now turned into an early marketing concept. [12]

Billboards are a major venue of cigarette advertising (10% of Michigan billboards advertise alcohol and tobacco, according to the Detroit Free Press [13]). They made the news when, in the tobacco settlement of 1999, all cigarette billboards were replaced with anti-smoking messages. In a parody of the Marlboro Man, some billboards depicted cowboys riding on ranches with slogans like "Bob, I miss my lung".

America's first regular television news programme, Camel News Caravan, was sponsored by Camel Cigarettes and featured an ashtray on the desk in front of the newscaster and the Camel logo behind him. The show ran from 1949 to 1956.

Canada

In Canada, advertising of tobacco products has been prohibited by the Hazardous Products Act as of May 1988 and all tobacco products must show warning signs on all packaging.

Until 2003, tobacco manufacturers got around this restriction by sponsoring cultural and sporting events, such as the Benson and Hedges Symphony of Fire (a fireworks display in Toronto and Vancouver), which allowed the manufacturers' names and logos to appear in advertisements sponsoring the events, and at the venues. The ban on tobacco sponsorship was a major factor that led to the near-cancellation of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal, but was saved by finding replacement sponsors and an agreement for the cars to have tobacco advertising removed. Most sports and cultural events were able to find new sponsors. One drastic move, however, was the removal of major tournament status of the du Maurier Classic, a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour. While the Bank of Montréal took over sponsorship of the event originally called La Canadienne after the 2000 event and renamed it the BMO Canadian Women's Open, the event lost major tournament status and was replaced on the major event schedule by the Women's British Open. After five years of Bank on Montréal sponsorship, they have decided not to renew the sponsorship. CN are now the major sponsors of the event

Australia

The Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 expressly prohibited almost all forms of Tobacco advertising in Australia, including the sponsorship of sporting or other cultural events by cigarette brands. One example of this was the Winfield Cup (the former name of the title for New South Wales Rugby League), which was sponsored by Winfield cigarettes. They were allowed to continue with the sponsorship until the end of 1995, but all tobacco advertising in Australia was eliminated after.

Vending machines are still allowed in licensed premises, but advertising of cigarettes is strictly forbidden. No "eye-grabbing" words, labels or photos are allowed on the machines; the images of cigarette brands must be made small so they are less obvious to the naked eye, and; there must be large health warnings placed on the machines.

New Zealand

Tobacco advertising in New Zealand was outlawed with the passage of the Smokefree Amendment Act 1990.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, the displayed of cigarette packets in advertisements has been banned since 1 January 1995. However, this has not stopped tobacco companies from advertising their products. They have found ingenious ways to bypass these laws by using brand names for a bistro and cybercafes such as Benson & Hedges Bistro and Sampoerna A International Cyberworld, for stationery, accessories, clothing like Dunhill, Marlboro Classics, Pall Mall, John Player Specials, Winfield and Winston. holiday tours like Mild Seven Seaferers Club, Peter Stuyvesant Travel and Tours, Kent Holidays and Salem Holidays and even in the sponsorship of concerts and entertainment events. All of these are indirect advertising strategies employed by tobacco companies in order to target young people.

Starting from 1 January 2003, the Malaysian federal government has even banned such indirect advertising of tobacco brands, except in certain establishments licensed to sell tobacco products.

Anti-smoking advertising

Anti-smoking groups, particularly cancer charities, along with many government health departments have attempted to counter the advertising of tobacco by creating their own advertisements to highlight the negative effects of smoking. The earliest commercials mainly focused on aiding smoking cessation, the increased risk of lung cancer and the problems associated with passive smoking. However, they have become increasingly hard-hitting over the years, with some campaigns now centred around decreased physical attractiveness [14] and the risk of erectile dysfunction [15]. These are more targeted towards younger smokers than previous campaigns. The British government spent £31 million in 2003 as part of their anti-smoking campaign [16].

In 2005 the European Union launched the "For a life without tobacco" campaign in all its constituent countries to help people quit smoking [17].

The Marlboro Man was one of the most successful cigarette advertising campaigns, lasting from the 1960s to the 1990s. The Marlboro brand was promoted by various cowboys, with Wayne McLaren posing for some promotional photographs in 1976. He died of lung cancer in 1992, having appeared in a television spot showing him in a hospital bed. That image was juxtaposed with him during the promotional shoot, with a voiceover warning about the dangers of smoking. [18]

Sponsorship in sport

In June 1997, one month after a general election won by the Labour Party, Frank Dobson, the British Health Secretary, announced that sponsorship in all sports by tobacco companies would be banned.

Formula One

Kimi Räikkönen in the McLaren showing the West logo

The teams, drivers and circuits of Formula One are heavily dependent on the financial backing of their sponsors. The tobacco industry has played a major role in sponsoring the sport and have faced numerous battles with governments around the world. Despite the decision to ban all sports sponsorship, in November 1997 the British government decided to exclude Formula One based on the threat that the sport would leave Europe and race in countries that did not impose such restrictions. Soon after it was revealed that Bernie Ecclestone, the CEO of Formula One Management, had donated £1 million to the party and by December they announced that the exemption would only be temporary.

There is now a blanket ban on advertising in Europe, and the cars are not allowed to show any links with the tobacco companies. They are, however, still allowed to run with a livery and general colour scheme matching their sponsor. For example, McLaren replaces the West logo on their cars with the drivers' names in the same colour and typeface, Jordan typically replaces the Benson & Hedges logo with phrases such as "Buzzing Hornets" or "Be on edge" (simply removing some letters from Benson Hedges) (with "Bitten Heroes" used at the 2001 United States Grand Prix, held two weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks), and Ferrari replaces the word Marlboro with a series of vertical lines which resemble the Marlboro logo. British American Racing (BAR) uses a complex pattern with different messages on the wings and bar codes with phrases such as "Look Left, Look Right, Don't Walk" and "Speed Freak" (differs per race) on the car. Renault typically replaces the Mild Seven logo with name Team Spirit

Increasingly, the teams are breaking their dependence on tobacco sponsorship. In 2003, WilliamsF1 became the first major team to run without tobacco sponsorship when GlaxoSmithKline product NiQuitin, a smoking cessation product, became an associate sponsor [19].

Formula One teams were required by the EU regulations to cease the display of such products by 31 July 2005, though the British Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act imposes stricter rules on companies based within their jurisdiction. The British law caused some confusion, however, with teams not fully aware of exactly what it covered [20]. The BAR team management decided not to risk a jail sentence by showing their Lucky Strike sponsorship at the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix [21]. Circuits and teams based outside of the EU, however, are not covered by such regulations and thus allowed to continue with their sponsorship deals and the display of the brand [22].

NASCAR

The NASCAR Championship, now associated with Sprint, was sponsored by R.J. Reynolds until 2003 when Reynolds announced they were unable to continue the sponsorship.

NASCAR's top series found sponsorship from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) in the early 1970s following the U.S. ban on television advertising of cigarettes. The "Winston Cup" became the top competitive series, and later, some other regional series under NASCAR were also sponsored by the tobacco company (for example, the "Winston West" series). In the mid-1970s, some races began to get partial television coverage, frequently on the ABC sports variety show, Wide World of Sports. While Winston was not able to do commercial advertisements, their name was all over television during races. Over the many years of their relationship with NASCAR, Winston sponsored several programs including the 1985-97 Winston Million, which awarded a million dollars to a driver who could win a "small slam" of the sport's four Grand Slam events in the same year. From 1998 to 2002, No Bull 5, a more complex award system, was used. Each year, there were five races (initially the four majors and Indianapolis) selected to be a part of this promotion. Each driver who finished in the top 5 in the previous No Bull 5 race was eligible to win in the next race selected, along with a fan. If one of the eligible drivers won that race, they were awarded with a million dollar bonus.

In addition, many other race teams had some tobacco-related advertising, including an RJR-sponsored car driven by Jimmy Spencer.

On February 5, 2003, R. J. Reynolds informed NASCAR that their five-year extension to sponsor NASCAR's premier division signed in July 2002 could be dissolved because of economic concerns at the company, in what turned out to be one of two major sponsorship losses at the sanctioning body. Earlier in the year, ConocoPhillips, which made the 76 brand of fuel, announced it would withdraw from NASCAR at the end of the 2003 season.

That allowed NASCAR to free itself of Reynolds if they wanted, and on June 19, 2003, NASCAR announced at the NASDAQ MarketSite a new ten-year deal with Nextel Communications starting in the 2004 season, as the familiar red was replaced with Nextel yellow (Nextel's new colours were announced after the deal had been signed), and starting in September 2005, NASCAR began replacing Nextel logos with Sprint logos started appearing in reference to the new sponsor.

One major change NASCAR was able to market with Nextel was the series advertising banners. Whereas in the past, Winston signs could only state "Winston", "Winston Cup Series", or later "NASCAR Winston Cup Series", with some early era Victory Lane banners stating "The Taste of Victory", Nextel was able to use advertising to market itself better, which included "Speed Meets Speed", "The Car Phone Reborn", and "Finish Faster" positioned next to the Nextel Cup logo.

Link: http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/market_event_061903.stm

Smaller tobacco companies not covered by the Master Settlement Agreement have attempted sponsorship for portions of the season or circuits. Bailey's, a small tobacco company based in Virginia, has sponsorship of selected races for the Bobby Hamilton Racing team based in Tennessee, and the Bailey's 300 at Martinsville Speedway for late model race cars in the region which race at NASCAR-sanctioned tracks. Drivers in that race have advanced to NASCAR's three national series.

In 2005, GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of Goody's Headache Powder, a NASCAR sponsor since 1977, expanded their long-term sponsorship by adding their Nicorette brand of smoking cessation product as a NASCAR official sponsor, and signed with Chip Ganassi Racing for a one-year deal, and longtime GSK Goody's Headache Powder spokeman, and former smoker, Richard Petty would lead their "Commit to Quit" program.

For 2006, Jeff Gordon has been asked to led GSK's Nicorette, with a Nicorette car for two races.

GlaxoSmithKline's goal is to bank on the loyalty of NASCAR fans, and the loyalty of their nearly thirty years of NASCAR sponsorship, into expanding from bad breaks to quitting smoking.

North American Open Wheel Racing

As a result of the Master Settlement Agreement, drivers under the age of eighteen years of age are prohibited from racing in events in which tobacco sponsorship is on a competitor's car or a series sponsor, which has resulted in many controversies as drivers under 18 have been affected by the ruling.

In October 2001, during the CART FedEx Championship Series Marlboro 500 presented by Toyota at California Speedway, a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race was scheduled on the Saturday of the event. Because CART had cars sponsored by Marlboro, Player's, and Kool, and the race's title sponsor was Marlboro, after the first practice, NASCAR was forced to eject Roush Racing driver Kyle Busch, who was fastest in practice, as he was 16. The MSA requires drivers to be 18, and shortly afterwards, in agreement with Winston (NASCAR's primary sponsor at the time), ruled in all series sanctioned by NASCAR, a driver must be 18. Previously, NASCAR had mandated 18 only for tobacco-sponsored series. (As a result of eliminating tobacco title sponsorships, NASCAR has changed the age minimum, cutting it to 16 in 2007 for the two Grand National and Whelen Modified Tours.)

The Indy Racing League IndyCar Series was hit with a similar headache in 2006 in two separate incidents; first, former IRL driver Jim Gutherie's team in the Indy Pro Series was forced to hire substitute drivers for the first three races when Sean Gutherie (Jim's son) was only 17; Sean participated in the Freedom 100, the fourth race of the season, after turning 18. Second, 17-year old driver Colin Braun of the Grand American Road Racing Association was forced to sit out the Grand Prix of Miami at the Homestead-Miami Speedway because of age restrictions, as that race was held in conjunction with the Toyota Indy 300 IndyCar meet the next day.

Braun and the team he drives, Krohn Racing of Houston, sued a New York court, claiming age discrimination because of his age. The team claimed allowing Braun to race in this event violates contracts with the Watkins Glen International circuit, Indy Racing League, and Marlboro, which sponsors the IRL Pole Award and Penske Racing.

A judge ruled June 1 he should be permitted to race, in violation of the MSA, which has put the 2006 Six Hours in jeopardy.

http://www.star-gazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060602/SPORTS0202/606020319/1002

On June 2, Krohn Racing and the IRL settled their dispute, benching Braun for that race, and one more race, at Infineon Raceway, based on the IRL's ruling that drivers on IndyCar Series weekends must be 18 because of tobacco advertising regulations. Grand American Road Racing does not have such restrictions on their race weekends.

On July 1, Graham Rahal, who is 17, will race at the IRL's Indy Pro Series Liberty Challenge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Because the Indy Pro Series is not being held in conjunction with the IRL's IndyCar Series, and the two tobacco brands which signed the MSA agreed they cannot show their logos during the United States Grand Prix (the main event on the card which features the Liberty Challenge), Rahal is permitted to participate in this event. (Note that Japan Tobacco, which produces Mild Seven, did not sign the MSA because they do not sell their brands in the United States. Japan Tobacco, however, holds international distribution rights outside of the United States for R. J. Reynolds' tobacco brands. Thus, JT can run a Mild Seven-sponsored Formula One car, but not a Camel-sponsored MotoGP motorcycle (as it is produced under licence from Reynolds), in the United States.)

Snooker

Snooker was badly hit by the British ban on tobacco sponsorship, with several tournaments losing their financial backers. These included:

The World Snooker Championship was given special dispensation from the European Union directive until 2005. The Masters went without any sponsorship in 2004, before receiving the backing of Rileys Club the following year. Some players spoke out against the ban, worried that the game would not be able to survive without the financial backing of the tobacco companies [23][24].

Other sports

Various sports have relied on sponsorship money from tobacco companies, both for the participants and for competitions.

Trends in tobacco promotion

With the restrictions placed on general advertising, tobacco companies have moved to new promotions to establish new customers and maintain existing ones. For example Altira has a strategy of growth by promotions that build brand equity through adult consumer experiences[26]. The intent is to reinforce brand loyalty by building consumer communities.

One example is Marlboro's Outwit the West, a 'by-invitation if you're a smoker' 4-member team-based 'competition' with a series of cryptic brain teasers. The top 20 teams get invited to the Marlboro ranch, a location where it's 'okay to smoke' and food, drinks and activities are paid for by the company. The team with the most correct answers shares a one million dollar prize. Thousands of teams participate.

More generally, Marlboro has been using its mailing database (estimated at 26 million in 2005[27]) to promote directly with giveaways and general invitations to the Marlboro Ranch (these include a $900 payment to offset fringe benefits tax). Reinforcement is provided by branded products and by peers.

See also

References

External links

Laws and legislation
Anti-smoking organisations
Miscellaneous
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