History of tobacco advertising in the American media
This is the promotion of tobacco products by the tobacco industry in the media. Currently, tobacco advertisement is one of the most regulated forms of marketing in the media industry. The earliest form of tobacco advertisement in the United States media dates back to 1789 in the New York Dairy. This advertisement was from P. Lorillard and Company and was promoting the companies tobacco products. By this time the tobacco companies used the local and regional newspapers to advertise their products because they were engaged in small-scale production and their products were distributed within small geographical areas (Borio 4).
The first tobacco brand to receive a wide range of popularity was “Bull Durham” in 1868 which started to place national wide media advertisements which were emphasizing on how the company products, an example of their slogan is “to roll your own.” In the 1970s the development of color lithography was a boost to the tobacco advisement in the U.S. media. This is because the companies were able to come up with more creative images in the presentation of their products. This development led to the printing of pictures in the cigarette card which was the new marketing concept.
By the end of the 19th century, there was the development of magazines that carried different cigarette adverts. An example of a magazine that was used in cigarette advertising was Punch. Most of these magazines had national wide distribution and they had become a major advertising tool to many products.
During the early part of the twentieth century, tobacco advertisement in the media grew tremendously. There were nationwide advertisements on the radio, television, and newspapers. The tobacco companies had grown and they had a nationwide distribution network and the Media advertisement by this time was not regulated. There was increased competition from the cigarette manufacturers that led to a stimulated advertisement in the media on cigarette products (Pollay 2).
In the 1950s and 1960s, there was increased advertisement of cigarette brands on television and radio. The cigarette brands started to sponsor various programs on televisions. Some of the most famous ads in the tobacco industry in the 1960s came from the Winston cigarettes, the company aired adverts with slogans that went like, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!” the other competitor with a famous advert in the media was for the Tateyton cigarettes. The cigarette TV commercials were many and they became more creative and interesting with time.
The control and regulation of cigarette advertisement started in 1967 when the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) gave their concerns on the increasing number of cigarette advertising commercials in the media. The FCC gives direction to tobacco companies to pay for anti-smoking ads in the media. The public health cigarette smoking act was passed by congress in 1970 which banned all cigarette advertisements on television and the radio. After this bill was passed tobacco products were only advertised in magazines, newspapers, and billboards. After the banning of radio and television advertisements, many tobacco companies bought big advertisement spaces in the print media which were not banned.
In 1994 the cigarette adverts became more controlled even in the print media after the release of the report (by surgeon general) that prevented the use of tobacco products among young people. The report concluded that young people were susceptible to cigarette promotions and they made them become victims of cigarette smoking. Currently, cigarette advertisement in the media is banned by the federal government.
Alcohol advertisement in the American media
Alcohol advertisement also dates back to the late 19th century when brewing companies started to place adverts in the newspaper to promote their products. These alcohol advertisements become many as more brewing companies expanded their regional markets and distribution areas. One of the recognizable brands that were advertised in the early 20th century was the Guinness brand. Some of the remembered slogans for these brands include “Guinness for strength”: This was aired in the 1940s. Due to the development of the TV and radio industry in the early 19th century, there was the development of many creative commercials for alcoholic products (Martin 143).
In the 1950s there were series of congress committee hearings that proposed the banning of alcohol and cigarette ads. The alcohol brewing industries fought back to be allowed to advertise their products. During this period no regulation on alcohol products was implemented. During this time there was increased media advisement on the TV and radio. This was due to increased competition as many brewing companies wanted to expand their market share. There was also the emergence of many alcohol brands which needed to be advertised so that they can penetrate the market. This growth in the alcohol industry saw many programs on the TV being sponsored by various alcohol brands.
From 1988 there was the development of various mechanisms to control alcohol advertisement in the American media. This is through the formation of self-regulatory bodies which are responsible for creating ethics in alcohol advertising. These current standards were to set a limit to the media on the group of people it can advertise alcohol products to. These regulations were put in place to protect children from alcohol ads. Currently, the media can air an alcohol advertisement to a population where over 70 percent are above the age of 21 years. They are also other regulations as to the type of advertisement that can be aired in the media such as the use of tools that can be appealing to the children is regulated (Gallagher 3).
The self-regulatory mechanism of alcohol is too strong in the United States such that alcohol ads are well regulated and mostly avoids regulation by the federal government. The media vendors have also developed a tendency to reject alcohol advertisements in their programs. There are some televisions networks in the United States who (although their viewers have attained the drinking age) don’t accept alcohol adverts.
Conclusion
The alcohol and tobacco advertisement has faced a lot of challenges which has resulted from the ethical issues in these adverts. The history of media advertising of the two products has shown that they have undergone various regulations by the federal government. There has been a complete ban on media advertisement of tobacco products due to health risks that are associated with the consumption of these products. The media advertisement on alcohol products has also been placed under a strict self-regulating mechanism that has curtailed the freedom of these adverts. This history reflects the continued demand by society to the media to observe ethics in the advertisement.
Works cited
Borio Gene. “Tobacco Timeline: The Twentieth Century 1900-1949–The Rise of the Cigarette.” Tobacco.org, 1993. Web.
Gallagher Terry. “Scholar examines politics of alcohol and tobacco advertising regulations”. The Regents of the University of Michigan, 2008. Web.
Martin Susan. “The effects of the mass media on the use and abuse of alcohol”, DIANE Publishing, New York, 1995.
Pollay Richard. “History of cigarette advertising”. Sage Publications. 2009. Web.