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"The issue for tobacco companies has evolved beyond market share to the need to recruit new smokers. Hispanics and African-American women are the most likely recruits, since they have not kept pace with the national move toward quitting." |
Research Review Recent research findings can be divided into three categories: advertising to minorities, children as target markets, and current prevention efforts. Each category is discussed below.
Tobacco products are advertised and promoted disproportionately to ethnic communities. Examples of targeted promotions include the introduction of cigarettes such as “Rio” and “Dorado”to the Hispanic-American community, “American Spirit” to the American Indian community, and new generic and subgeneric brands such as “Pyramid” and “Heritage” to the African-American community (4). Tobacco companies account for four of the five biggest billboard advertisers in the country. Most of the billboards appear in minority communities and the products advertised appear in a higher density than in other communities (4). Tobacco has not merely exploited the African-American community, however. The industry and the African American minority group share an economically interdependent history. First, there was the heavy use of slaves in growing and processing tobacco. After slavery was abolished, the tobacco industry provided some of the only industrial jobs African-American laborers could find in some areas. Cigarette companies used African-American models long before other corporations did, and the tobacco industry began advertising in African-American publications before anyone else outside the minority community. Since the 1950s, tobacco companies have built image and credibility in African-American communities by supporting cultural events and funding colleges, elected officials, civic and community organizations, and scholarship programs (4). As the overall market for tobacco has declined, the industry has expanded its promotion and advertising campaigns to include other minority markets as well. The issue for tobacco companies has evolved beyond competing for market share to the need to recruit new smokers. Hispanics and African-American women are the most likely recruits, since they have not kept pace with the national move toward quitting (4). However, minority communities have begun to empower themselves to fight such advertising and marketing. A swift and powerful backlash by African Americans forced the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco company to pull their “Uptown” cigarette (4). Star Tobacco Corporation also manufactured a menthol cigarette called “X,” packaged in the red, black, and green colors of the black nationalist movement. The cigarettes were marketed in 20 states before a coalition of outraged African-American community groups successfully forced the manufacturers to discontinue the brand (5). |