Advertising as the part of marketing science and the main mean to bring together products and potential customers is undoubtedly useful thing. But can advertising impact our lives in some negative manner, bringing troubles or problems? Answering this question, most people claim advertising to be the most annoying thing in our lives. Nobody likes commercial when it interrupts the latest film viewing or favorite TV show, but still it is not the worst things about it. Speaking about smoking and advertising of cigarettes, the problem appears to be much deeper.
Here is the collision - products, which are harmful to human body, are greatly demanded by people themselves, thus selling such products, like tobacco and alcohol is among the most profitable business activities. That is the explanation of tremendous advertising budgets of tobacco companies. According to some statistic information in 1997 tobacco companies spent 5.7 billion of US dollars for advertising and nowadays this figure is much bigger. All these dollars are targeted to make us, as the potential customers, to buy cigarettes.
Many legal and public organizations are the opponents of cigarettes advertising. They promote the healthy state of life without smoking, explaining the problems, smoking can cause in people. Smoking is not just bad habit, requiring more and more money to spend on cigarettes; it can lead to serious diseases, like lung cancer or heart diseases.
American Lung Association (www.lungusa.org) is the most active and powerful organization, trying to explain people the threats on smoking as well as to decrease the influence of advertising on people's decision to start smoking. The association also shows the ways to give up this bad habit with the help of different consulting programs or appropriate therapy treatment. Last few years the success of Lung Association in fighting the smoking is especially notable: a growing number of states have taken the official legal steps to decrease the smoking with the restriction of smoking in public places and increasing the taxes on the cigarettes. As of August 2005 the average state cigarette tax is $0.89 per pack, what makes many adult people and specially youngsters to quit smoking.
Meantime the tobacco companies are not going to give up and become more and more inventive in promoting cigarettes. After the banning of cartoons to promote the cigarettes, the manufacturers produced new lines of cigarettes with fruit and candy flavors, targeted mostly on the young customers. So the fighting goes on, both sides are strong enough and take adequate steps in persuading people to start smoking or quit it.
Finally I would like to underline the position of author to the problem of smoking and advertising. I am not trying to claim advertising of smoking as Evil incarnation and cigarettes as the Devil's creatures; I just want people to understand that the initial decision to start smoking should be independent and personal, not under influence of friends, advertising or something else. Taking such decision, one should always keep in mind all the problems, smoking can bring into his life.
Nick
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