Emotions for sale: cigarette advertising and women’s psychosocial needs
- Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Correspondence to: Pamela M Ling MD MPH ,Box 0320, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0320, USA; plingmedicine.ucsf.edu
- Received 24 June 2004
- Accepted 16 December 2004
Abstract
Objective: To explore messages of psychosocial needs satisfaction in cigarette advertising targeting women and implications for tobacco control policy.
Methods: Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents and public advertising collections.
Results: Tobacco industry market research attempted to identify the psychosocial needs of different groups of women, and cigarette advertising campaigns for brands that women smoke explicitly aimed to position cigarettes as capable of satisfying these needs. Such positioning can be accomplished with advertising that downplays or excludes smoking imagery. As women’s needs change with age and over time, advertisements were developed to reflect the needs encountered at different stages in women’s lives. Cigarette brands for younger women stressed female camaraderie, self confidence, freedom, and independence; cigarette brands for older women addressed needs for pleasure, relaxation, social acceptability, and escape from daily stresses.
Conclusions: Psychosocial needs satisfaction can be communicated without reference to cigarettes or smoking. This may explain why partial advertising bans are ineffective and comprehensive bans on all forms of tobacco marketing are effective. Counter-advertising should attempt to expose and undermine the needs satisfaction messages of cigarette advertising campaigns directed at women.
