Tobacco, Alcohol and Gambling

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer examines the history of vice-advertising. The writer then looks at how it has paralleled and departed from general advertising, and how regulation has shaped the industry. The writer points out that the amazing thing about vices, both big and small, is that there has always been a demand for them and there always will be, regardless of the fact that they are not necessities - and thus competition between suppliers can be quite fierce. The writer notes that vice advertising has always had a struggle - getting people to buy what they don't need and getting them hooked so as to keep them coming back. The writer concludes that advertising vice requires titillation of one or more senses to such a degree that natural disinclination toward involvement in a vice is overcome, and throughout history, the vice-advertisers have successfully accomplished this.

From the Paper:

"The big three vices, tobacco, alcohol and gambling, are widely advertised today in a broad variety of media outlets. Additional vices, such as prostitution, continue to be popular with consumers, but they do not enjoy the ability to be advertised on a wide scale. When it comes to these three, however, there are quite significant differences in how each is advertised, and how each is presented to the consumer. When we look at the history of advertising for tobacco, alcohol and gambling, we can see that vice has never needed or wanted to be subtle. You don't find cigarette ads hidden in philosophy or metaphors - you see cool people smoking. You don't beer commercials not showing the beer - you see the people you want to be friends with not drinking their beer, but acting like it's great. You see people young and old having a grand time in casinos showing the kind of excitement gambling, drinking, smoking, and being entertained can be. Vice advertising is, by its nature, about exciting the appetite, about creating a connection between the consumer and the product that overrides moral objections, titillates, and drives desire - much like any other advertisement does."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hemphill, T.A. (2002). A prohibition on advertising?. Regulation 25:1, p8(3).
• Messner, M.A. & Montez, J. (2005). The male consumer as loser: beer and liquor ads in mega sports media events. Signs 30:3, p1879(31).
• Pritcher, L. (2007) Tobacco Advertising. Duke.edu. Online. Internet. Avail. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/tobacco.html. Info Acc: 11 April, 2007.
• Quigley, P.H. (2006). Tobacco's Civil War: images of the sectional conflict on tobacco package labels. Southern Cultures 12:2, p53(5).

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