Does Cigarrette Advertising Increases Cigarette Consumption?

In the early seventies, tobacco adverts was legal in United States and to the extent that cigarette brands sponsors television shows. Restriction on tobacco adverts starts after the Surgeon General’s Advisory committee in United States release its report on smoking and health.  This report led to promulgation of laws requiring warning labels on tobacco products and restrictions on tobacco advertisements. As these began to come into force, cigarette brands became more subtle with their marketing strategy. Most tobacco adverts are designed to associate tobacco with success, athleticism, courage and independence, attributes that easily fascinate the youths. A number of cigarette   advertisements are designed to appeal to the youths.   The adverts increased awareness and uptake of smoking among teenagers. 

The effectiveness of tobacco advertisement is widely documented. Reports and studies from a number of sources including government  health ministries, non-governmental agencies  point to the fact that young people who are  exposed to tobacco adverts  are  more likely  to use tobacco. According to by Saffer (1997:34), “public health experts say that tobacco advertising increases cigarette consumption and there is much empirical literature that finds a significant effect of tobacco advertising on smoking especially among teenagers”.   The following statement from World    Health    Organization (WHO), “It is clearly proven that exposure to direct and indirect pro-tobacco advertising, together with other marketing strategies, leads to an increase in experimentation by young people and in turn, to the very real risk of  becoming regular users of tobacco products” showed that young people are attracted to tobacco smoking by adverts. Due to the deadly impact of tobacco on health, WHO (2004:2) has been explicitly supporting tobacco control on a worldwide basis. It has appealed to member states and policy-makers to promulgate laws that will institute a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products.

According to World Health Organization (WHO Quarterly Bulletin 2001), “cigarette smoking is growing by a record of 3.5 percent a year in west African countries”.  Another disturbing fact is that number of women that is consuming tobacco is on increase especially in West Africa countries. The result of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS, 2001) reveals that the rise in the use of tobacco products among girls and young women is one of the most ominous developments of the global tobacco epidemic.   World Health Organization (WHO) reported that “tobacco smoking killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and warned that it could kill one billion people around the world in the 21st century”.