'300','300'
In order to sell more and more cigarettes, and make more and more money, the tobacco industry is always looking for new target markets, new groups of people to push their product on.
| We don’t smoke that sh*t. We just
sell it. We reserve it for the young, the black, the poor and the
stupid. R.J.
Reynold's (Big Tobacco Company) Executive3 |
This quote from a tobacco company executive illustrates how the tobacco industry focuses on manipulating people who are vulnerable, such as young people or people who may not have a lot of power. They use complex messages about how smoking creates a certain image, reduces stress or gives people more feelings of power.
| As life gets harder for them in the West,
the tobacco companies are aggressively targeting developing countries
and Eastern Europe. Action
on Smoking and Health Press Release, November, 20014 |
Because of stricter laws in Western countries, the tobacco industry has started to target young people in under-developed countries, like India, Brazil and Korea. This is especially evil because under-developed countries are particularly vulnerable due to things like poverty, lack of resources, and lack of health care.
For example, in Taiwan RJ Reynolds arranged a concert by a teen star where five empty packs of Winston’s was the only accepted admission “ticket”5. What better way for a tobacco company to become “cool with kids”?
25% of women in industrialized areas smoke, but only 7% of women in the
rest of the world smoke6
This makes women in the South
a new target for the tobacco industry, because they want to raise smoking
rates in this group. The tobacco industry promotes smoking to women using
seductive advertising that exploits ideas of independence, liberation,
sex appeal and slimness.