The ban of all cigarette advertising essay

Nowadays, the state and society attempt to struggle with the problem of smoking, especially among teenagers. This problem is very serious and needs a complex solution. In this respect, it should be said that often the ban of all cigarette advertising aimed at teenagers and young adults in television, billboards, magazines and sporting events is considered to be an extremely effective tool which can help prevent smoking among teenagers and young adults.

Whatever the effect of this strategy on the target audience is, this inevitably affects tobacco companies.

First of all, it should be said that such a ban of cigarette advertising limits substantially the opportunities for tobacco companies to promote their products to the target customers, namely to young adults, as well as other potential smokers. In fact, television, magazines, billboards and sporting events were traditionally the major tools used by tobacco companies to advertise their product (Howard 266). This is why the ban may increase considerably the costs of advertising and its effectiveness to tobacco companies

However, in order to objectively assess the impact of the ban on tobacco companies, it is necessary to carefully analyze the effectiveness of advertising via television, magazines, billboards and sporting events. In this respect, it should be said that the effectiveness of such advertising is not as high as it is traditionally considered to be. At any rate, nowadays the effectiveness of the advertising in television and magazines, for instance, is gradually decreasing and the same may be said about billboards. As for sporting events, the advertising may be really effective due to the growing popularity of sport but it is necessary to remember about the fact that smoking and sport are quite contradictory concepts that will inevitably undermine the interest of customers to the advertising of cigarettes in sporting events (Gitlow 361). It is quite logical to presuppose that the target audience that is interested in sport can hardly be interested in the product that may prevent them from the direct participation in this sport. This is why it is possible to conclude that the effectiveness of advertising in sporting events will also decrease.

In such a situation, it seems as if the costs of advertising for tobacco companies will even decrease since television, magazines and sporting events are quite expansive. But the decrease will concern only the areas affected by the ban.

At the same time, the companies still need to advertise their products that implies the increase of costs of advertising using different media to promote their products. In this respect, Internet is quite perspective medium which is quite effective and the cost of advertising is relatively low at the moment (Howard 425). However, as the demand from the part of tobacco companies increases the costs of the advertising will increase proportionally to the demand.

Nevertheless, the ban of advertising will hardly deteriorate the position of tobacco companies since the popularity of Internet gradually outgrows the popularity of television, for instance. As a result, the advertising via this medium will be even more effective than the advertising in television and, what is more, the target audience of advertising enlarges considerably, while teenagers and young adults constitute the main part of the audience and, therefore, they may become potential consumers of the products of tobacco companies in a long run.