Do Cigarette Ads Really Encourage Teens to Smoke?

In the 1980s cigarette ads were common on television as well as on billboards. R. J. Reynolds’ Tobacco company created the character Joe Camel to start appealing to teenagers. They needed a way to appeal to teenagers because their sales were diminishing rapidly. The coporation did the research to find that most people start smoking around the sixth and seventh grade. With this information they needed to create a new strategy to attract younger people to their product and they needed to do so fast! Thus Joe Camel was born. Joe Camel was a hip looking character who wore hip looking clothes and sunglasses.

Unfortunately R. J. Reynolds’ character, Joe Camel, was a huge success to say the least. Sales skyrocketed up 8000%, yes that’s is correct eight thousand percent. “One out four kids aged 12 - 17 say that they smoke Camels (Walsh).” Joe Camel was so popular that kids as young as six recognized the character just as well as they recognized Mickey Mouse!

What do teenagers want from smoking cigarettes? Do teenagers think they will look cool? Most teenagers would deny this when asked but in all reality, teenagers don’t particularly like the taste or smell of a cigarette. However cigarettes are seen as “cool” nowadays. Therefore teenagers will do whatever it takes to fit in or be a part of the in crowd. After the first puff of a cigarette, a person becomes aware of the taste and learns how to deal with it. “About 60 percent of current teen smokers have tried to quit within the past year, reports the CDC. Most started out thinking they could quit at any time. But nicotine addiction seizes control before teens realize they're hooked--sometimes within

days or weeks after the first cigarette (Kowalski).” Sooner or later these smoking teenagers turn into smoking adults who then turn into statistics just decades after starting the deadly habit, all just to fit in. The only thing the smoking teenager fit in was a statistic that rules their cause of death due to smoking.

Some teenagers think that smoking will help them loose weight. This theory is not true to any extent. Teenagers simply stop eating and start smoking which in all actuality causes more damage to their health. To stop eating is one bad decision but to stop eating just to start smoking is a horrible decision. Perhaps a teenager will lose a few pounds, but in the long run their health has been severely altered for the worse. In fact, more than 4000 chemicals have now entered their body (Bojang). The smoking teenager now faces a harder time trying to lose weight by dieting and exercising because of the deterioration of their lungs.

Now the question is do advertisers really aim for teens? Are the ads trying to lure teens into smoking or are they just a hip way to attract anyone? The truth is, cigarette companies need new customers to stay in business, otherwise their business would die out like many of their customers. There is a claim that states, more intelligent people should know the bad side (Forbis). To me this is simply a cop out to get around the main issue that advertisers really are out for teenagers. So does this mean Joe Camel should be considered innocent? I think not. Some might argue that Joe Camel had nothing