Emerging Tobacco Products/Marketing Strategies: From Hip Hop to Marijuana

There has been an explosion of emerging tobacco products and marketing strategies targeting urban communities. Many of the products are flavored or mentholated cigarettes and cigars and some have marijuana names. Upstart tobacco companies have bombarded communities with newer and cheaper products. In marketing emerging products, the industry has incorporate new themes such as Hip-Hop into their marketing strategies. Hip-Hop culture originated in African American communities and it appeals to youth worldwide.

In addition, other companies are targeting communities with products that promote tobacco and marijuana use. These products include marijuana-themed tobacco products and marijuana-flavored candy such as Chronic Candy. According to the candy distributors, the product targets “Blunt/Cigar customers” and is endorsed by hip-hop artists. It is well known among youth that hip-hop artists use tobacco products to smoke marijuana.

Methods: Emerging tobacco products, tobacco and drug promoting products and marketing materials such as advertisements and promotional items were collected from stores, print media and events. Collected items were scanned for use in this presentation. In addition, Rap Music and visits to non-traditional tobacco industry websites will be incorporated into this presentation.

Results: While monitoring communities for emerging products, an advocate discovered the sale of Chronic Candy in gas stations. The advocate developed an alert to educate fellow advocates about the product. The alert initiated legislative action on local and state levels. In 2006, state level elected officials in six states proposed statewide bans on the sale of the candy.