I found a "tobacco document" on the internet & I was amazed!! This is the abstract from it:
Abstract
This document is key in understanding why Philip Morris is secure in going from actively pursuing the youth market to declaring, extensively and through ubiquitous advertising campaigns, that the company doesn't want kids to smoke. In 1991, Carolyn Levy (then of PM's Marketing Research department) contracted with a company called Rapaille Associates to study the emotional reasons why people smoke, presumably so the company could better leverage these emotions in advertising and promotions. Rapaille interviewed people about their first experiences with smoking. (Many of the people he interviewed reported that these experiences occurred when they were between 4 and 9 years old). Rapaille noted that typically the first experience with smoking involved seeing an admired adult do it, feeling that that they were excluded from the activity, and that they strongly wanted to be included. Rapaille ultimately linked smoking with adult initiation rituals, risk taking, bonding with peers and the need for kids to feel like they belong to a group and can partake in an "adult activity." The study states
"The first imprinting of smoking is that adults do it, and I'm excluded...A critical element at this stage is the fact that the individual is on the 'outside,' excluded..."
The report makes recommendations to PM's marketing department based on these findings:
"Recommendations based on the Archetype:
Stress that smoking is for adults only Make it difficult for minors to obtain cigarettes Continue having smoking perceived as a legitimate, albeit morally ambiguous adult activity. Smoking should occupy the middle ground between activities that everyone can partake in vs. activities that only the fringe of society embraces. Stress that smoking is dangerous. Smoking is for people who like to take risks, who are not afraid of taboos, who take life as an adventure to prove themselves. Emphasize the ritualistic elements of smoking, particularly fire and smoke. Emphasize the individualism/conformity dichotomy Stress the popularity of a brand, that choosing it will reinforce your identity AND your integration into the group. This explains why PM supports--and advertises widely that it supports-- restricting sales cigarette sales to minors and moving cigarettes out of reach of kids. Aside from the now well-known political advantages that PM's "youth smoking prevention" programs confer, this explains why PM feels comfortable in advertising its "kids shouldn't smoke" campaigns. The company knows that the more they can project a finger-wagging, forbidden-fruit, "adults-only"-type message about smoking, the more they will stimulate kids to smoke.
Carolyn Levy, the PM scientist who headed the Archetype Project (and who had experience studying both addiction and youth marketing), was appointed the first head of PM's youth smoking prevention department in 1993.
The full link is:
tobaccodocuments.org/landma...
Anti smoking campaigns seem to be a double edged sword when it comes to youth.