alik_05
06-02-2005, 11:48 AM
Tobacco Companies target Women - [Marketing]
U.S. cigarette companies modified their products to induce women smokers by stressing stylishness, taste and perceived health benefits that they knew would appeal to women, a Harvard study of tobacco industry documents claims.
While men are smoking less globally, female smoking rates are expected to continue increasing and reach 20 per cent by 2025, driven by the growth of female markets in developing countries. The June 2005 issue of the journal Addiction takes a step forward in understanding the role of product design in targeting cigarettes to women. Appealing attributes such as women's liberation, glamour, success and thinness are taken into account.
For more than 20 years, the industry studied gender-based differences in motivational factors, smoking patterns, and product preferences in order to promote smoking among women and girls, the authors wrote. The research allowed companies to make cigarettes that exploited the concept of relative saftey through light cigarettes, and conformed to women's taste and odour preferences and the actual way women smoke: with a weaker pull than men.
The documents also show that cigarette makers went so far as to explore the use of appetite suppressants in cigarettes to promote smoking-mediated weight control, the researchers wrote. "...cigarette designs and ingredients were manipulated to make the cigarettes more palatable to women and to complement advertising illusions of smooth, healthy, weight-controlling, stress-reducing smoke," an accompanying editorial in Addiction said.
CBC
U.S. cigarette companies modified their products to induce women smokers by stressing stylishness, taste and perceived health benefits that they knew would appeal to women, a Harvard study of tobacco industry documents claims.
While men are smoking less globally, female smoking rates are expected to continue increasing and reach 20 per cent by 2025, driven by the growth of female markets in developing countries. The June 2005 issue of the journal Addiction takes a step forward in understanding the role of product design in targeting cigarettes to women. Appealing attributes such as women's liberation, glamour, success and thinness are taken into account.
For more than 20 years, the industry studied gender-based differences in motivational factors, smoking patterns, and product preferences in order to promote smoking among women and girls, the authors wrote. The research allowed companies to make cigarettes that exploited the concept of relative saftey through light cigarettes, and conformed to women's taste and odour preferences and the actual way women smoke: with a weaker pull than men.
The documents also show that cigarette makers went so far as to explore the use of appetite suppressants in cigarettes to promote smoking-mediated weight control, the researchers wrote. "...cigarette designs and ingredients were manipulated to make the cigarettes more palatable to women and to complement advertising illusions of smooth, healthy, weight-controlling, stress-reducing smoke," an accompanying editorial in Addiction said.
CBC