Is Social Marketing Just Smoke and Mirrors? Adolescent Female Smoking

Abstract

It is estimated that tobacco use is responsible for more than 500,000 deaths every year across the EU (Ryan, 2000). In adolescence, higher rates of smoking are reported among girls than boys in an increasing number of European countries (Currie et al. 2004). Estimates by the World Health Organisation calculate that the number of women who smoke is set to almost triple on a global scale by the year 2025. This trend has also been confirmed in Europe. While men’s smoking is slowly on the decline, smoking rates among women increased in 11 of the 25 EU member states between 1985 and 2003 (European Network for Smoking Prevention, 2007). The Irish Office of Tobacco Control’s research has confirmed that initiation into smoking is largely a childhood phenomenon. More than 75% of all smokers in Ireland started to smoke before they reached the age of 18 (HBSC Ireland, 2006). The tobacco industry needs 50 Irish children to start smoking every day in order to maintain the size of its current Irish customer base (Office of Tobacco Control, 2007). The Irish National Health and Lifestyle survey 2002 states that almost half of Irish children have tried a cigarette. By the age of 15 to 17 years, one third of all boys and girls are smoking between three and six cigarettes a day. By the age of 15 years, more girls smoke than boys and by the age of 16 years, 80% of all smokers have become addicted. Smoking plays an important role in the social and physical environment of young people. Often young smokers, although aware of the health risks, minimise these risks for themselves, underestimate the risk of becoming addicted and do not relate their personal smoking to adult smoking behaviours (Lambert et al. 2002). The use of fear appeals is perhaps the most common tactic for social marketing, with threats of physical harm including injury and death used more frequently than social threats. The prevailing anti-tobacco appeal attempts to scare the target group into attitude and behaviour changes through the use of physical or social threat messages. According to the theory, people can be motivated to engage in desirable health behaviours not only to avoid health risks (physical threats) but also to avoid social or interpersonal risks (Dijkstra, et al. 1998). In a smoking context, studies have shown that an overall decline in smoking behaviour was noticed by adolescents who viewed an anti-smoking advertisement as opposed to adolescents who did not view an anti-smoking advertisement (Smith and Stutts, 2003).