Cigarette Advertising

7 Pages 1781 Words

Alcohol and Tobacco Advertising: Pros and Cons

Alcohol and Tobacco advertisments are widely known to have more cons than pros. However, the companies behind these products have the consitutional right to show consumers what they have to offer. With issues like underage use and suggestive advertising, more alcohol and tobacco advertisments are being banned from different media. I will discuss these issues in the following research paper including information from different countries and opposite stand points.
Since tobacco and alcohol use can lead to disease and death and since you need to be a certain age to consume the products, advertising for alcohol and tobacco have always been frowned apon. If it is not accusations of targeting minors or concealing important health risks, it is whether or not the advertising induces addiction or abuse.
In 1989, the US Surgeon General reported that "the collective empirical, experiential and logical evidence makes it more likely than not that avertising and promotional activities do stimulate cigarette consumption." The Surgeon General suggests seven ways how the tobacco companies use advertising to encourage smoking. 1) Encourages children and young adults to expriement tobacco and eventually become addicted. 2) Encourage consumers to increase usage. 3) Reduces consumers want to quit. 4) By encouraging ex-smokers to start again. 5) By discouraging full and open discussion of the hazards of smoking as a result of media dependence on advertising revenues. 6) By silencing the opposition to controls on tobacco as a result of the need of organizations recieveing sponsership from said company. 7) By creating an environment in which tobacco is seen as acceptable and the health warnings are not a concern.1
Concerning alcohol advertisements, The Federal Trade Commission (1985) found "no reliable basis to conclude that alcohol advertising significantly affects consumption, let a...