I recently read a pretty fantastic blog post by Maeli about possibly false advertising stemming from color scheme selection on cigarette boxes, and while at the time I found the idea a little bit ridiculous, today I came across this article about cigarette boxes and ads aimed (through color scheme and design) towards teenage girls. Thankfully the ads were pulled in 2008, but the long-lasting effects of specified advertising remain.Called "Camel No. 9" (and meant to resemble Chanel No. 9 perfume), the cigarettes were placed in chic black boxes with pink trim, and marketed in magazines like Glamour and US Weekly. The company offered promotional gifts like berry lip balm and cell phone jewelry with cigarette purchases. Of course girls were going to be inclined to buy cigarettes that were advertised as "light & luscious" and offered them gifts as innocent as jewelry and lip balm.
The article not only reminded me of many of the "6 Weapons of Influence," but it also made me think of the discussions we had earlier in the year about advertising to children. Teenage girls may very well be just as easily influenced as young children, and when it comes to smoking cigarettes, our minds are easily swayed by those of our peers. Ads like these don't help at all in supressing cigarette addictions, and it's estimated that under the influence of these advertisements, 174,000 underage girls began smoking.
When we talked about immoral advertisements earlier in the year, I wrote a blog about the vulnerability of children. Looking back on that now, and noting how characters in children's ads seemed to go through a "drug-like withdrawal" when not supplied with their favorite products. I remember being absolutely appalled about that, and reading drug advertisements aimed at minors seems even worse. These corporations really are selling an addiction (at an illegal age too), and all they care about is the profit.
1 comment:
This is really interesting. I'm very surprsied by this but I guess it makes sense. When I was in France I saw pink cigarettes so I think you can guess as to the target of these cigarettes. And also, I remember reading an articl a while ago about how wine and other liquor companies are redesigning their bottles to appeal more to women. There was a study done that women were more likely to buy liquor that looked good as opposed to the actual taste. I think it says a lot to the way people's minds work.
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