Targeting Youth in Tobacco Advertising

Paper Summary:

The largest market segment in the smoking and non-smoking population, the youth sector, has been targeted as the most important market segment for cigarette product ads. This paper discusses the main reasons why targeting the youth sector is considered the most lucrative market in the cigarette/tobacco industry today and answers the question why advertisements remain the most effective method of enticing consumers to buy cigarette products despite the obvious health risks to the consumer.

From the Paper:

"In psychology, the influence of tobacco ads among the youth illustrates the importance of image copying and self-concept formation than the risks of potential health problems as primary motivations for smoking. It is evident that social interaction is important, since ?[s]moking experimentation commonly occurs at transition points in adolescence when there is a threat to a teen's emerging self-concept? They are more subject to social pressure and more attuned to advertising? (Lynch, 1994:119). Thus, smoking among the youth cannot be generalized as a product of "limited capacities" in the process of decision-making, but rather, participating actively in making the choice on whether to smoke to form one's own self-concept and image in his/her society or not to smoke in order to avoid the health risks posed by consuming the product."

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