|
A long article in Brandweek
by Mike Beirne tells the
success tobacco marketers are having despite restrictions placed on them by
legal and ethical limits. He sites the
effectiveness of “event-based marketing and database analysis, albeit punched
up via e-mail.” In fact it’s working so
well that marketers for other industries are taking pages from the tobacco
marketers’ playbooks.
Tobacco brands like RJR and Marlboro have plenty of
marketing money to stage competitions, entertainment and contests at hip
nightclubs and bars across the country, sweetened by prize trips to Vegas and
the Marlboro Ranch in Arizona. Databases are expanded to enable sending a glut
of mail and e-mail to smokers.
Marlboro’s database lists about 25 million smokers.
All this is an age when the very serious health risks of
tobacco use have been proven and are fully known by all.
Luckily for the health of the nation, there are those who
are working to offset the success of tobacco marketers. The Science, Industry and Business Library of
the New York Public Library has opened an exhibit of tobacco advertising during
the 1920s to 1950s, “Not a Cough in a Carload: Images Used by Tobacco Companies
to Hide the Hazards of Smoking,” which underscores what the intent of tobacco companies
has always been: Health be damned, just
please smoke.
I come from a generation of smokers. It’s what we did for fun and relaxation, just
like the ads told us to. I wish I could
introduce you to all my friends, relatives and associates who smoked and then
developed lung cancer and emphysema.
Unfortunately, I can’t, because several of them died, leaving careers
and families behind at a relatively early age.
So here’s my question to tobacco marketers: How do you sleep at night?
 |
