The issue of tobacco marketing and African Americans refers to the practice of customizing tobacco products and advertising techniques specifically to African American consumers. It is most commonly analyzed through the consumption of mentholated cigarettes, as it represents 47% of black adult smokers and 84% of adolescent black smokers.
Background
Tobacco Policy | How African-American Communities Are Targeted - Tobacco companies aggressively target vulnerable communities, including minorities and low-income areas, through the use of aggressive marketing and cultural appropriation. The policies and...
African Americans are the only ethnic group to suffer disproportionately from smoking-caused chronic and preventable diseases, evident in the approximately 45,000 African Americans who die from smoking-caused illness each year. Studies indicate that an estimated 1.6 million African Americans under the age of 18 who are alive today will become regular smokers. Consequently, about 500,000 of these individuals will die prematurely from tobacco-related disease.
The vernacular origins of cool stemmed directly from the jazz culture of the 1950s and 1960s. It was during this time that the term cool went from a definition of cold to an urban definition of being: "The Birth of Cool". The Kool brand capitalized on this new culture of "coolness" in African-American culture that evolved from the Davis' jazz movement. They drew upon the idea of "coolness" to define their brand, Kool. It was then associated with a positive, glamorous self-image which embodied the idea of cool found in jazz. The brand's first tagline was: "To be cool you smoke Kool". Later, they further infused the idea of cool and glamorous with the line "Smoking a Kool? Like riding a Rolls Royce". B&W used Kool to substantiate the idea of a cool lifestyle.
Description
Geographic targeting
In a 2002 study, it was found that within poor environments that had a greater quantity of African Americans, there were more interior and exterior tobacco advertisements (mentholated cigarette advertisements) in retail outlets than in predominantly white and middle to upper class communities. Through advertisements of Kool, B&W capitalized on many African Americans' positive view of mentholation and its medicinal properties. Philip Morris USA introduced a Marlboro Smooth to insinuate the reduction of menthol in comparison with Kool. R.J. Reynolds promoted its brand of mentholated cigarettes, Salem, in an effort to achieve the same results.
A 2008 study in California stated that the number of cigarette ads per store, and the proportion of stores with at least one ad for sales promotion, increased more rapidly in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of African Americans. In 2007, in comparison to the white majority areas, there were 2.6 times more tobacco advertisements per person in areas with an African American majority. Moreover, prior to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement ban on tobacco billboard advertising in 1999, there was a significant increase in tobacco related billboards in ethnic communities over white communities as well. Billboards were located mostly in lower income areas with a higher percentage of African Americans. Here, there was a 70% higher chance that billboards were tobacco related. In St. Louis alone, 20% of billboard advertising and four out of the five top brands on billboards were tobacco related.In addition, magazine advertisements of the mentholated cigarettes popular with African Americans increased from 13% of total ad expenditures in 1998 to 49% in 2005. To this effect, recent studies have found that more cigarette ads are placed in African American magazines, such as Ebony and Jet, than magazines like Time and People. Tobacco companies deliberately used research regarding African American and menthol to gear advertisement of tobacco on mentholated products in African American communities.
As a result of such targeting practices, the average African American adult has been exposed to about 892 ads and the youth, 559 ads. Among both adult and youth smokers, Newport, Kool and Marlboro are the most popular brands. About 42% of black adults smoke Newport, while 84% of young African Americans smoke this brand as well. African Americans are the top consumer of all mentholated products. Many products were made just for African American consumers such as Marlboro Menthol Shorts, which were advertised as being "exquisitely designed for the African American lung."
Cultural targeting
Kool began using hip-hop brands with popular disk jockeys emblazoned on the packs of Kool Menthol Caribbean Chill to entice minorities. During the period of 1995 - 1999, tobacco companies sponsored at least 2733 events, programs, and organizations throughout the United States and the minimum total funding of these sponsorships was $365.4 million. The sponsorships involved numerous small, community-based organizations that received funding and grants through larger umbrella organizations, many of these were part of the public health infrastructure. Due to this, public health practitioners needed to develop better surveillance systems for monitoring tobacco sponsorships, to seek alternative funding sources for tobacco sponsored events and organizations, and to consider promoting a ban on tobacco sponsorship, possibly linking such regulation to the creation of alternative funding sources.
Social mobility
On the heels of the Civil Rights Movement and the mist of the Vietnam War, companies such as Kool took advantage of the new opportunities for African American upward mobility and marketed toward these desires. Inside the 1967 issue of Ebony magazine, "Negro Youth: Anger, Anxious and Aware", Kool bought an ad behind the cover, which illustrated a broken brick wall with an advertisement of luxury and leisure that said "come up to the Kool taste". Ads represented an assimilation of aspirations, with males being tall, dark and handsome, and females had light skin and straight hair.
Legal issues
State Attorneys General vs. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.
The attorneys general of New York, Maryland, and Illinois filed suit against the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. over the marketing of Kool cigarettes. The lawsuits had asserted that the company's 2004 Kool MIXX promotion, which was billed by the company as a supposed celebration of hip-hop music and culture, violated the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) by targeting African American youth. The Kool Mixx campaign featured images of disc jockeys, young rappers, and dancers on cigarette packs and in advertising. All of the contests and events held appealed to the youth, especially African American. At the same time, B&W was introducing a new line of flavors using images of African Americans and themes appealing to them.
A settlement was reached with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which acquired the assets of Brown & Williamson in July. Under the settlement, R.J. Reynolds agreed to substantial limitations on all future "Kool MIXX" promotions, and agreed to pay $1.46 million to be used for youth smoking prevention purposes. This is the first time that the tobacco industry has agreed to marketing limitations that are even stricter than those set forth in the MSA.
Under the settlement, R.J. Reynolds agreed to significant restrictions on all future Kool MIXX promotions, including:
- Prohibiting use of the words Kool, Mixx or House of Menthol on any merchandise;
- Prohibiting the use of hip-hop songs and interactive games on the CD-ROM;
- Limiting the distribution of CD-ROMs to adult-only facilities and by mail to known adult smokers;
- Prohibiting the sale of special edition packs in retail stores, and instead limiting distribution to adult-only facilities;
- Prohibiting the separate House of Menthol website; and
- Ensuring that any Kool MIXX print advertisements are placed only in magazines with relatively low youth readership.
Brown vs. Philip Morris, Inc.
In the case of Brown versus Philip Morris, Inc., the Reverend Jesse Brown attempted to highlight the economic racism of cigarette marketing through a civil rights claim. The Brown complaint stated that the "Defendant have for many years targeted African Americans and their communities with specific advertising to lure them into using mentholated tobacco products." Brown raised the issues of discrimination, niche marketing, and the "staggering loss of life, premature disability, disease, illness, and economic loss" that were the result of the "Tobacco Companies international and racially discrimination fraudulent course of mis conduct."
Brown contended that menthol cigarettes contained enhanced dangers over other cigarettes. Brown began by explaining that the ingredient menthol contains compounds such as benzopyrene, which are carcinogenic when smoked. Second, he argued that mentholated cigarettes contain higher nicotine and tar levels than non-mentholated cigarettes. Thirdly, Brown claimed that menthol encourages deeper and longer inhalation of tobacco smoke, increasing the addictive properties of the cigarette and decreasing the lung's ability to rid itself of carcinogenic components of smoke. Based on evidence submitted in Brown, mentholated cigarettes account for between 60-75 percent of the cigarettes smoked by African Americansâ€"and 90 percent of African American youth who smoke, smoke menthols.
The case was dismissed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2001, most likely due to the fact that Reverend Brown brought this injury claim as a civil rights suit, providing a radical departure from defective products. By claiming transgression of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, originally written to protect recently freed slaves from a variety of discriminatory practices, the complainants of the Brown suit sought to show the unconstitutionality of targeting African Americans with defective products. The Brown complaint failed to take into consideration that the menthol cigarettes were still posing a threat to non-African American as well and that harm was being caused to more than just the African American community.
See also
- Tobacco advertising
References
