Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and ITC in India say they do not plan market campaigns to hook young generation to tobacco and they are diversifying their product line.
But this claim was contradictated by Bloomberg Philanthropies, financed by billionaire New York city former mayor Bloomberg. The Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products (STOP) competition was launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies at the World Conference on Tobacco and Health in Cape Town, South Africa, donating $20 millions.
The practices of 1970s like free cigarette distribution near campuses in San Francisco, glamorous cowboy Marlborough and mature pretty girls smoking Slim and rich Indian man carrying Dun-hill 555 brand imported, middle class with Red and White cigarette are dead images now.
But the new generation of social media is filled with beautiful, very deceptively young looking people vaping, smoking, dancing, partying and outdoors hiking posted on social media with similar or same hashtags. The trend indicates far more access of social media globally to promote different tobacco brands in ways never seen before in the history.
Robert V. Kozinets, a professor at the University of Southern California, is an expert in relating social media hashtags matching with many tobacco companies. The match was unusual. Kozinets started to look deeper in this issue. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an NGO, studied social media in 10 countries by looking for hashtags that connect to tobacco cigarette brands supporting his studies.
Researchers working for Kozinets interviewed people who wanted to stay anonymous, that were classified as “micro influencers” or “ambassadors”, some paid some unpaid, but were connected to tobacco companies or their agents. This research was conducted in forty countries
According to research, 123 hashtags associated with these companies’ tobacco products have been viewed 8.8 billion times in the United States of America alone and 25 billion times around the world. Such wide reach was unthinkable few years ago
Tobacco is advertised in very subtle ways, like a casual looking girl in pajama laying on floor with a cigarette brand looking upside down. Some times there is no mention of product but ad of a party organized, with brand display at the scene of the party.
Tobacco companies say they have no say in what is posted and how it is posted by individual posters on Face book or Instagram.
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