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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Diana Bowser, MPH¹, Carrie M. Carpenter, MS², Geoffrey Ferris Wayne, MA², and Gregory N. Connolly, DMD, MPH². (1) Population and International Health Department, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave., SPH1-1210, Boston, MA 02115, 6174321027, dbowser@hsph.harvard.edu, (2) Division of Public Health Practice, Harvard School of Public Health, 401 Park Drive, 3rd Floor East, Boston, MA 02215

This paper uses previously secret tobacco industry documents to determine the extent to which cigarette manufactures targeted their marketing strategies to the Mississippi River Delta Region, defined as five states (Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama) closest to the lower Mississippi River basin. This area has received a considerable amount of attention in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The research was conducted through a systematic web-based search of tobacco industry documents made publicly available through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. The results show that that targeting of the Delta region was an important consideration in the industry's larger national agenda. The tobacco industry research informed tailored marketing strategies and product promotions that were used to appeal to the lower income and minority populations in the Delta Region, including promotion of the half pack, discount and generic products, and specific advertising techniques. In conclusion, the tobacco industry used regional strategies to promote products to specific populations—one of which was the Delta Region population. Demographic and geographic characteristics were used by cigarette manufacturers in developing products and advertising strategies tailored to this historically underserved, low income Delta population. This research shows how the same population who suffered the fate of Hurricane Katrina has also been a target of tobacco industry marketing and research for many years.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the Mississippi Delta Region and the health and economic disparities in this region.
• Describe how the tobacco industry used marketing strategies and product promotions to appeal to the lower income and minority populations in the Delta Region.

Keywords: Tobacco Industry, Tobacco Policy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation