How Cigarette Companies Continue To Target Kids

by Bridget on May 22, 2012

For years, opponents to big tobacco have made claims that the cigarette industry has promoted specialized products directly at young children. Camel cigarettes actually used to have a cartoon camel promoting its product. Eventually, the dropped the advertising campaign after many lambasted the company for blatantly targeting young people. However, that did not stop cigarette advertisers from continuing to come up with ways to get young people hooked on their products from an early age.

Menthol

One of Camel’s best new sellers is a product called Camel Crush. These cigarettes have a squeezable filter in them that magically transform a cigarette from regular flavor to menthol, or other flavors. This new product has recently gained over a quarter of the market share among kids aged 12-16 years old. This is a staggering share of kids who are being drawn to this one, particular product. Now, other cigarette companies are getting in on the craze.

Market Shares

Marlboro remains the undisputed king of teen smoking. They control over 50% of the market share for smokers under the age of 18. Newport and Camel pale in comparison to Marlboro’s continued ability to attract new generations of smokers with clever advertisements and inventive products that appeal to the younger demographics. One of the best-selling tobacco products, amongst young people, remains menthol cigarettes. Menthol cigarettes taste much more pleasant than regular cigarettes, and have a minty aftertaste.

Trends

For cigarette companies, it is important to know what young smokers preferences are, because they are probably going to end up being lifelong customers. By knowing which types of cigarettes teens choose today, market analysts working for big tobacco companies will be able to predict the trends of the future. Young people’s smoking brand preferences drive long-term market shares amongst the big tobacco companies.

Anti-Smoking Campaigns

Thankfully, the rate of young people choosing to smoke has steadily started to decline in the past few years. This is due to many things. First, educational campaigns regarding the dangers of prolonged tobacco use has proven very effective in showing children exactly how cigarettes harm their bodies. Also, more regulation in how tobacco companies are able to market their products have helped put a damper on their ability to reach new, young smokers.

It is no longer debatable whether or not cigarette smoking is bad for you. There have been numerous, definitive studies that have proven that smoking tobacco is incredibly damaging to an individual’s health. However, that does not mean the tobacco companies are going to give up on trying to market their product to a new generation of kids. They will continue to spend large amounts of money on industry analysts, research, and development to come up with new products that target young teens. It is vital that we continue to do a good job of educating our young people about the inherent dangers of smoking tobacco. It is extremely difficult to overcome an addiction to tobacco. Cigarettes have been proven to be one of the most addictive substances in the world, and many people require an outpatient drug treatment program to help them to quit smoking.

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