4 ms·

I only saw that they were tasked with creating general advertisements, not targetted ads for kids, though, I suppose kids are included if a country allows tobac

by bcook 10y ago

I only saw that they were tasked with creating general advertisements, not targetted ads for kids, though, I suppose kids are included if a country allows tobacco advertisements in public. Still, the article implies that they are marketing directly towards children... which seems inaccurate.

legulere 10y ago
Tobacco advertisement always is about kids/teenagers, because that's where you get new customers. Getting smokers to switch brands is harder and not really worth it. Here in Germany tobacco advertisements for instance isn't banned yet (planned for 2020). I very often see Marlboro advertisement in public. They show good looking young people living the good life (as in at a concert, not something you can only reach with lots of money). The slogan is: Don't be a maybe, be marlboro paired with some sentence telling you that maybe is bad.
- nefitty 10y ago
  Thanks for sharing that. When I say "kids" I mean young people. That Vice is using its knowledge and leverage with youth for the tobacco industry is what angers me. My original post is getting downvoted, but maybe your comment will shed some light on what is happening.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  > Getting smokers to switch brands is harder and not really worth it. What I read about this (which dates from the 80s or so) said that elasticity of demand for smoking is very low (no surprise; that's why we call it addictive) and that brand loyalty is also very low. Which means it's easy to get smokers to switch brands; you just need to charge a lower price. In practice, this market structure means that price competition is rather pointless, since all your sales are cannibalized from other cigarette vendors, and if they return the favor you've just lost a bunch of money for no reason. So cigarette companies really like to charge "whatever the other companies charge". This supports the idea that getting smokers to switch brands isn't worth it, but definitely doesn't support the idea that it's hard. (This comes from a Straight Dope question as to why the price of a pack of cigarettes is so uniform across companies.)

by bcook 10y ago

legulere 10y ago

Tobacco advertisement always is about kids/teenagers, because that's where you get new customers. Getting smokers to switch brands is harder and not really worth it. Here in Germany tobacco advertisements for instance isn't banned yet (planned for 2020). I very often see Marlboro advertisement in public. They show good looking young people living the good life (as in at a concert, not something you can only reach with lots of money). The slogan is: Don't be a maybe, be marlboro paired with some sentence telling you that maybe is bad.

nefitty 10y ago
Thanks for sharing that. When I say "kids" I mean young people. That Vice is using its knowledge and leverage with youth for the tobacco industry is what angers me. My original post is getting downvoted, but maybe your comment will shed some light on what is happening.
thaumasiotes 10y ago
> Getting smokers to switch brands is harder and not really worth it. What I read about this (which dates from the 80s or so) said that elasticity of demand for smoking is very low (no surprise; that's why we call it addictive) and that brand loyalty is also very low. Which means it's easy to get smokers to switch brands; you just need to charge a lower price. In practice, this market structure means that price competition is rather pointless, since all your sales are cannibalized from other cigarette vendors, and if they return the favor you've just lost a bunch of money for no reason. So cigarette companies really like to charge "whatever the other companies charge". This supports the idea that getting smokers to switch brands isn't worth it, but definitely doesn't support the idea that it's hard. (This comes from a Straight Dope question as to why the price of a pack of cigarettes is so uniform across companies.)