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Promoting Tobacco Use Among Students: The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company College Marketing Program
Author(s) -
Qian Z. Jason,
Hill Matthew J.,
Ramamurthi Divya,
Jackler Robert K.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1002/lary.29265
Subject(s) - smokeless tobacco , tobacco industry , incentive , logo (programming language) , medicine , advertising , medical education , quarter (canadian coin) , marketing , clicker , public relations , tobacco use , business , psychology , political science , environmental health , mathematics education , population , archaeology , pathology , computer science , programming language , economics , history , microeconomics
Objectives/Hypothesis From the 1970s–1990s the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company (USST) conducted aggressive campaigns to solicit college students to buy their smokeless tobacco (ST) products. The scope, scale, methods, and impact of this youth marketing campaign have yet to be analyzed in the academic literature. Study Design Historical research study. Methods Internal industry documents describing the USST campaigns were obtained via the University of California, San Francisco's repository of tobacco company records. Marketing materials were obtained from Stanford University's Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA) collection of 657 USST advertisements. Results USST's College Marketing Program (1978–mid 1980s) sponsored events in some 350 campuses and hired student representatives in at least 175 colleges and universities across America. College representatives were trained to provide free samples to fellow students. Over a typical school year approximately a quarter million Happy Days, Skoal, and Skoal Bandits samples were handed out to undergraduates. USST paid their student representatives well and offered them a variety of incentives based upon sales growth. During the 1990s, USST's Skoal Music program engaged students on campuses and at “spring break” venues such as Daytona Beach. Conclusions Targeting of college students on campus was a common tobacco industry practice between the 1940s and early 1960s. From the 1970s through 1990s USST resurrected the method and pursued it with vigor including: distribution of free samples; sponsored events and concerts, branded intramural teams; visits by sports celebrities; logo wearables and merchandise; contests and incentives; and displays and promotions in stores on and surrounding campuses. Laryngoscope , 131:E1860–E1872, 2021