The Influence of Tobacco Marketing on Public Health

Tobacco manufacturers know that the key to establishing a lifelong customer is to expose young people to smoking early in life, hence, tobacco advertising and promotion is of particular interest to public health professionals.

A 2002 poll conducted by International Communications Research found that 64% of young people ages 12-17 were twice as likely as adults to correctly recall cigarette ads or tobacco products in the previous two weeks.

The Federal Trade Commission's report on cigarette sales and advertising expenditure shows that the six largest manufacturers continue to increase their spending on advertising and promotion, spending $12.4 billion in 2002, which was an 11% increase from the previous year.

This effective strategy often capitalizes on adolescent developmental issues to glamorize their products. One long-term result of industry promotions -- combined with a lack of smoking restrictions -- is that 90% os adult smokers began smoking as teenagers.

Tobacco use is called a "pediatric epidemic" with more than 3,000 children becoming regular smokers each day. As a result, more than 6.4 million children living today will die an early tobacco-related death.

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