The Darker Side of Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The Darker Side of Marketing - Essay Example This paper approves that the tobacco industry has used such studies to target the young and uninformed. They have used deceptive advertising as a result of these findings in the form of marketing ‘low-tar’ cigarettes. They have also used cartoon-like characters to appeal to the youth consumer. To their delight, this strategy indeed generated sales as planned without an ethical thought as to the dishonesty of such practices or that this practice was particularly disgusting as it applies to youth smoking. The marketing of filtered and low-tar cigarettes were planned to comfort smokers worried about the health risks associated with the habit and to impart this new product as an alternative to not smoking. This report makes a conclusion that Tobacco companies have routinely researched the smoking habits of teenagers and competed vigorously with each other to design products and their accompanying marketing strategies to ensnare a segment of the youth smoking market. When young persons see cigarette logos linked with their heroes, excitement, speed and triumph, they are likely to lose sight of the grim realities of smoking; death, disease and addiction. An addictive product doesn't take much to hook a new customer. For the tobacco companies, the expense of giving away free samples is negligible compared to the potential for long-term gains, especially from new young customers.