For Adults Only?

...................You MUST be kidding!

For Believers Only

 Advertising and marketing associations often blow their own trumpet and proclaim how interested they are in ethical marketing and advertising. This is fine so far as it goes. But what happens when one of their member companies stray? Well, the answer is probably nothing. Note the last line in the AMA Code of Ethics simply states that companies who stray from the straight and narrow may be penalized. The first clause is definitive: the company has strayed. The second is not: they may be penalized. As they probably say in Yorkshire, 'If you have sufficient clout you can expect nowt [to happen]'.

Would the associations, for example, kick out the agencies working for the tobacco companies? Will they do anything other than meekly censure them after reading these pages? Will the UK Advertising Standards Association and other professional associations in any of the countries noted in these web pages boycott those agencies who consistently and intentionally have breached the weak, self regulated, codes?

I think the answers are self evident. Only the consumer and their elected representatives have the power to bring the ad agencies and their client companies into line - and prevent the tobacco companies from attempting to 'brainwash' young kids and adolescents.

See Ads from the Archives for the stance adopted by theAmerican Association of Advertising Agencies a decade or so ago. The Association refuted claims about 'subliminal' advertising in a number of sophisticated ads that succeeded in both patronizing and conning American consumers. By incorporating the type of embedded images in their own ads the AAAA demonstrated that, whilst overtly ridiculing their critics and consumers who recognized that 'subliminal' ads were in use, their member agencies knew they could 'pull the wool' over the average American consumer any day.

You can also look across at the pages devoted to the Advertising Standards Authority of the UK. There you will note their attitude to 'subliminal advertising'. It doesn't exist. You will also be able to see examples of where they got it right and banned an ad from Peugeot that contained semi-subliminal content. However, even though embedded elements probably influenced their decision to censure the ad, they probably did not realise that it contained embedded elements.

Brainchildren or Sons of Reg

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to appreciate that the cigarette ads on the posters illustrated below were not penned with mature individuals in mind. 

But, admittedly, there is nothing definitive that would lead one to conclude they were intended for children.   On occasions the words or phrases are somewhat trendy - the word squillions did make it into the terminology of trendy late teens and young adults in the late 1990's.   However, even although it could be argued that most of these lines were written with adults in mind, it is much more likely that they originated in brainstorming sessions among 'creative' advertising personnel only too aware that their client tobacco companies need to catch their customers young.   

Cartoon type characters such as Regal's Reg were banned in the UK some years ago because of their obvious appeal to underage and unsophisticated smokers.    There would be extreme concern if UK companies made any overt attempts to 'import' characters such as the cute Camels featured in Camel ads (see Viva Espa�a and Camel pages). For the same reasons beware imported magazines. The Yanks page considers the extent to which British audiences are now exposed to American ads for cigarettes. British ads for cigarettes have clear cut guidelines as to what is and is not permissible. Ads thus have to be carefully tailored to appeal to underage smokers whilst appeaing to be directed towards adults with a preference for the cheaper branded cigarettes.  

Most cheap brands make use of similar devices, focussing on adolescent humour or unusually unsophisticated use of language and visuals. These are sufficient to circumvent the ASA guidelines on advertising to minors.  This technique developed because the tobacco company message to ad agencies is simple.  " Pitch the campaign as if it were directed towards adults.  It will therefore get past the Advertising Standards Authority when they evaluate the ad campaign at the concept stage.   But, as our target audience falls into a younger age group, ensure that the message will also appeal to under age kids. "

Given that the tobacco industry is a dying trade - and there is a continual need to replace onetime customers with new addicts - one might reasonably assume that the primary audience for such ads is not in fact adults but underage smokers. The reasoning behind the childish humour evident in Lambert & Butler ads, the adolescent language spinning the economic benefits of Mayfair, and the visual puns in Superkings ads, is thus quite apparent.   Very few of the puns, jokes and turns of phrase would be found in the linguistic usage of adults of even average intelligence. Nor in kids magazines such as Viz.  Such ads would therefore seem to be oriented towards young children just as their predecessors were. The target audience of these ads is unfortunately not sophisticated enough nor sceptical enough to realize that they are being conned by some of the most ruthless and heartless companies on earth.  By the time they realize they have been manipulated, if they ever do, they are hooked on nicotine - a drug that is as addictive as heroin. 

For Adults Only!  Don't make me laugh.

Future Developments

Would you be interested in supporting the development of a web site focussing specifically on cigarette advertising, smoking behaviour, nicotine addiction and related information? In particular would you like to help encourage youngsters to develop a healthy scepticism about advertising practices associated with cigarette advertising and promotion? If you can offer either financial assistance to develop such a site or have material available that could be of use on such a site, the author would be pleased if you would contact him.