Tobacco Targeting Children

Essay by RuruHigh School, 11th gradeA+, March 2004

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Tobacco is one of the main products that affect our children today. Companies that distribute these products do not think about who is getting affected by their product, but think about the profit they will make from selling their product. Big companies like Philip Morris who sell Marlboro, Basic, Virginia Slim and many other types of tobacco target young adults. Gene Emery quoted "the amount spent on tobacco advertising is targeting youngsters". Some points Gene Emery presents are quiet different than what I believe.

From working at my previous store that I owned in Sacramento, during these eight years, I didn't recognize some of the points Gene Emery brings out. Gene Emery suggests that "they found the amount spent to advertise three brands popular with young people- Camel, Marlboro and Newport- in youth-oriented magazines increased immediately". The first point I would like to point out is that Gene Emery targets young people and also said that "brands for adult-oriented products like Basic, Winston or Virginia Slims" spend less money on advertising because they target only adults.

He say's that certain products are for young people while some are for adults. The way he presented his idea was false because from my past experience, I have realized that Newport cigarettes targets African Americans, Marlboro targets originally Asians, Camel cigarettes targets construction workers, Virginia Slim targets women and Basic targets the less fortunate who can't buy Marlboro. Don't get me wrong that I am defend the tobacco companies, I am actually against this. Philip Morris spend more money on ad's for Marlboro than Basic because Marlboro is more popular and brings in more profit than Basic does.

When we deal with children, we have to be cautious about everything we do. Some adults who smoke, do not realize that their children are...