How has the tobacco industry influenced American culture?
The tobacco industry is out to sell a product. That product is only going to be viable if they recruit new smokers. So their primary purpose in their marketing is to recruit people to think positively about their product and to begin to experiment with it and use it. The tobacco industry has sponsored youth events: rock concerts, college events, art events, cultural and ethnic groups, who otherwise would not have access to easy money to support their events. The tobacco industry has gone in specifically marketing to Hispanics and the African-American cultures, trying to work on women and smoking. That's been a big emphasis of the tobacco industry. They also have influenced, probably, children because of the use of cartoon characters in the past, such as Joe Camel. They were required to stop using that promotion, at least in the U.S., during the Master Settlement Agreement. At that time Joe Camel was more recognizable than Mickey Mouse to children at the age of five. So we know that their promotion and marketing strategies has changed the views of, not only children, but adolescents through their marketing and movies. They aren't allowed to specifically market on TV anymore. But if you open up almost any magazine for an adolescent or a youth, race car driving, they sponsor race cars. They sponsor all sorts of events that seem cultural, sexy, racy. They create an image, like the old Camel man, the Marlboro man, the Marlboro ranch. All of these events, getting Camel bucks, and turning those in, people know about these. Promotional items like baseball caps, t-shirts, free give-aways. All of those things make the tobacco industry seem like the good guys, and encourage people to use their products and think of them in a positive way, instead of being honest about these products actually killing more people in America than any other single source.
