Objectives: This study examined tobacco industry documents to identify the origins and motivations of bar promotions, and to investigate how the industry organized these promotions. Methods: We searched tobacco document collections using key words, authors, and Bates (reference) numbers. These collections included the industry web sites of Phillip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Brown and Williamson, and document collections maintained by the University of California, San Francisco and www.tobaccodocuments.org. Results: Bar/club promotions evolved out of a general shift to promotional activities that was intensified by political pressures in the 1990's. Bar and nightclub promotions became a protective strategy for the tobacco industry because they countered 1990's controversy surrounding marketing to children, advertising limitations, and the passage of more inclusive clean indoor air laws. These venues also provided the industry with an environment where concentrated marketing efforts and financial incentives to bar owners and employees could be directed at shaping and engineering peer influence, a major factor involved in promoting smoking initiation. Conclusions: Bar and nightclub promotions are a major strategic opportunity for tobacco industry marketing efforts. Marketing focused in these venues has implications for expansions of clean indoor air laws in bars, nightclubs, and restaurants. This new strategy heavily focuses on marketing to young adults, a group that continues to be vulnerable to smoking initiation. Recent increases in smoking rates in this group raise the possibility that focused marketing may already be having an impact. Tobacco control advocates need to take this promotional strategy into consideration when designing anti-tobacco messages and measures.
Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, the participant will be able to: 1) Discuss three reasons why bar and nightclub promotions have become an important marketing strategy for the tobacco industry 2) List three types of bar and club promotional activities used by the tobacco industry to reach young adults 3) Describe how bar promotions provided an opportunity for the tobacco industry to use peer influence to encourage smoking
Keywords: Tobacco Industry, Marketing
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.