History and the role of professionals and institutions in advertising

I remember sitting on my couch when I was eleven or twelve years old in 2003, right next to my dad watching the Winston Cup Series which is now know as the Sprint cup for NASCAR. I also remember asking my dad what Winston was, and he always gave me the same answer. “It’s something that kills people”. I always thought wow, why would NASCAR be sponsored by something that kills people. Until I learned the damages of cigarettes, I then understood what my father was saying. And I also get why they changed it from Winston to Sprint.

            On April 1, 1970, Richard Nixon Signed a bill banning tobacco advertisements from television and the radio. Congress, television corporations and radio companies all debated this bill for over a year. The problems they encountered were mostly about money, not that tobacco causes cancer. Advertisement is becoming more and more expensive, so the income that these companies were getting from tobacco advertisements, would be lost.

            The advertisement of anything, will result in more income, that’s why there is advertisements everywhere you look. But the concept of tobacco users and advertisements is a lot different. Nicotine is a toxic chemical in tobacco that gives you a little buzz when it enters your bloodstream, also it is quite addictive. Therefore Nicotine being addictive means that people will go to great lengths in order to get it. This is why advertisement of tobacco is not necessarily a necessity for the big tobacco companies. It is useful but not really necessary anymore. I have never seen a tobacco advertisement that made me want to buy their product (except this one), and that’s simply because they’re not around. So how do tobacco companies keep making money? How and why do people keep smoking despite being overwhelmed with stories of people getting lung cancer, heart disease and all sorts of ailments? I believe the answer to this is the social status at a young age. We all can remember people in high school that did odd things to get people’s attention and perhaps fit in with a certain crowd. Some High school students think that smoking will make them “cool” or “badass”. So they begin buying cigarettes and smoking them where people will see them, maybe they make a few friends that way.

            Along with 90% of college students, we’re all going through a “fun” phase in our lives. This is where I picked up this disgusting habit. Often being stressed out with school, some of us feel the need to let loose and have a little fun, so after having a few beers or drinks, who doesn’t like to light up a smoke? I’ve often even caught my own parents, who used to smoke, at wedding parties with a cigarette between their fingers. The fact is that a little nicotine buzz when your drinking is sometimes nice. But this is where it starts, I’m a definite example. At first you start with one smoke when your drinking, and before you know it you need nicotine when you wake up, and then you find yourself making frequent gas station trips for cigarettes.

            So the ban on advertisement created a very big dilemma for tobacco companies. They needed to get their poisonous products out there, even if it was short and brief but just enough so they could get their customers hooked. I saw a story in the news a couple days ago about a 2 year old kid that was addicted to cigarettes.  This news story really opened my eyes to the lengths these companies would go to get people hooked and buy their products. Since certain advertisements were banned in the U.S. We’ve all seen “The Marlboro Man”, but we haven’t seen him in a while . . . at  least in the United States. He is ever present in Indonesia, on billboards, newspapers, and magazine ads. The fact that they’re targeting to such a low income country goes to tell you how desperate they’re getting. People are dying because of their products, but they’re making a boat load of money so why do they care?

            Tobacco advertisement is in a whole other league compared to just about every other product. The fact that their consumers become addicted is the epitome of consumer loyalty. The companies know that their customers will keep coming back for more.

Here are the websites I used:

http://www.tobacco.org/resources/history/Tobacco_Historynotes.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/smoking-baby-causes-web-controversy-10757122
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_Cup_Series
Pictures I used:
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/ad_gallery/
http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_marlboro_man.htm
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/addiction-in-society/201102/obamas-smoking-and-drug-injection-sites

"I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke"

We've all sipped on either a Pepsi, or a Coca-Cola. By now, the majority of the U.S. have consumed enough to where your quite familiar between each beverage and can differentiate between Coke and Pepsi. In 1985, Coca-Cola changed the formula to their very recognizable flagship soft drink.

These two soft drink corporations have had a very heated rivalry, and they're always trying to think of new ways to out do one another, but Coca-Cola generally was ahead in sales. In 1985 Coca-Cola realized that Pepsi was catching up in sales, so they attempted switching formulas, and devoted millions and millions of dollars to advertise their modification. This was one of the riskiest and possibly one of the biggest marketing blunders in history. Coca Cola's sales dropped substantially in the short amount of time that they introduced the new and "improved" product. Consumers reported the taste as being better than Pepsi. . . But drinking the whole can turned out to be a real chore. "It was good at first, but the flavor was very rich and way too sweet to drink a whole can".

Soon After Coke realized what they had done to their beloved and loyal customers, they changed their formula back to the original, thus the current name of Coke Classic.

http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_newcoke.html

http://www.sodamuseum.com/Coke/posters.html

Interview from Mary Lehman