Smoking >> What kind of mugs do they take us for?

Any industry that kills half of all its regular customers is always going to need new recruits – and lots of them. Smoking kills 120,000 people in the UK every year, so the tobacco industry is really up against it if it wants to keep the money rolling in. Because more than 80% of smokers started smoking in their teens, the obvious group for them to target is you – young people.

But there’s a snag. The tobacco companies agreed to a voluntary code of practice outlawing advertising to young people so that they wouldn’t have stricter laws imposed on them. But have they stuck to it? Of course not. In fact, when asked by one of his sales staff just how young an audience they could target, a senior tobacco company executive replied “They got lips? We want them.”

And there are plenty of ways to get to young people, apart from direct advertising. Take smoking in films, for example. In 1989, again under threat of new legislation outlawing the practice, the tobacco industry agreed to be bound by a voluntary ‘ban’ on tobacco product placements and pay offs in Hollywood movies. Did it work? Well, 70% of Hollywood films in 2003 still showed smoking and, suspiciously, there was actually more smoking going on in films aimed at young teenagers than in adult (18 rated) films. And smokers in films are different from smokers in the real world – they’re powerful, successful and attractive people. In real life, smokers tend to be poorer and less educated than non-smokers.

It’s hard to believe that the Hollywood moguls, having previously been paid (very generously) for this kind of coverage, are now doing it for free. And the tobacco companies know that placing cigarettes in films works – up to half of all teen smoking can be attributed to smoking in films.

>> Continue to part two of this article