Kimberly Shears-Barnes
AC1208360
Lesson 6: The Essay
Assignment 6_12
January 02, 2013

Three Ways That Cigarette Ad’s Hook Kids Smoking is a bad habit. It causes lung cancer, depression, and is addictive. In order to survive, tobacco manufacturers need to continue to recruit new cigarette smokers. More than 80% of adult smokers started before they turned 18 and by that time more than half of them were already smoking daily. We know that kids feel peer pressure from other kids in their everyday lives. But the teens and adults in cigarette advertising may be one of the most influential peer groups of all. As they move into their teens, kids often feel insecure about their appearance and their popularity. Cigarette ads use these insecurities to make empty promises. Ads give teens the message that smoking can help them become attractive, desirable, and independent when the reality is quite different. Smoking can cause bad breath and yellow teeth, isolate teens from largely non-smoking peers, and possibly lead to a deadly, lifelong habit. Images such as the Marlboro Man equate smoking with a macho ruggedness that is appealing to men and boys. This theme mirrors the pressures many boys face to be “tough”. Boys may believe that smoking will give them the aura of coolness they are searching for. Tobacco companies have specifically targeted women and girls for many years by associating specific brands with slimness. In fact, cigarette advertising often depicts smoking as a weight management tool. This plays into the cultural pressures to be thin that many girls and women experience. There are several reasons why tobacco companies target children and teenagers. In order to keep profits up, new customers need to be recruited to replace the thousands of smokers that die each day. Tobacco companies know that very few people begin smoking as adults;