Something that lands squarely in the “Top 10″ list of hypocrisy has got to be those Philip Morris commercials spouting off about how you can educate your kids not to smoke.
Have you seen these things? There’s usually a caring female voice-over reciting helpful statistics like “kids whose parents who talk to them about not smoking often tend not to smoke”. They also offer information on their website and pamphlets and such that one can get, presumably for free.
Now the funny thing is, if they’re so concerned about the ill effects of smoking….WHY DON’T THEY STOP SELLING CIGARETTES?
Ahem… sorry.
I just don’t understand how they can put this stuff out with a straight face. Especially when it’s well-known that if you don’t start smoking in your teen years, it is highly unlikely that you’ll pick up the habit later. Heck, this is right off of their website: “…80 percent of adult smokers started before they turned 18.”
Right, they’re encouraging their target audience who will provide lifetime revenue to not pick up the habit. You know this is all a bunch of B.S. and one of the biggest examples of hypocrisy I’ve seen in marketing.
Does anybody really fall for this?
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3 Comments
It would be amusing if it weren’t so tragic. Since 1971, tobacco ads have been prohibited on TV and the radio, but as with everything, there are loopholes. It’s not uncommon to see tobacco ads on racing cars and even in ball parks. And this latest round of ads by Philip Morris is a blatantly obvious attempt to get around existing regulations. I suppose the idea is that for kids, the ads will be so boring that only the idea of smoking will remain in their minds (good for business). And for adults, the ads will paint a picture of a company that cares, so they feel a little more justified about purchasing tobacco from them (also good for business).
Does that kind of advertising work? Not on me, it doesn’t, but it must work on some people. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense to keep advertising that way. It would sure be interesting to see how sales correlate with various advertising campaigns, wouldn’t it? I bet the results would really surprise a lot of people.
Brian
I’m fairly certain that these ads are part of the settlement from the lawsuits a few years back, otherwise I’m sure they wouldn’t be doing them. So, perhaps less hypocrisy and more legal arm-twisting.
Ah, that’s always a possibility, although I agree with Brian that it’s a way to get cigarettes on the airwaves without actually advertising them. Teens think they’ll live forever and don’t usually care about the health risks of *anything*.
Vic