Why Do Millennials Still Smoke?

Posted on by crmatacotta

By: Christina Matacotta

Though well aware of the negative health consequences, 23 percent of millennials continue to smoke cigarettes.

Pew Research classifies millennials as all those born between 1981 and 1998 (18-35 year olds). By this definition, not even the oldest member of their generation has lived in a world naïve to the health problems caused by smoking cigarettes. On the other hand, Baby Boomers, all of whom were born before the release of the 1964 Surgeon General Report (which originally linked smoking to serious health issues) have the lowest smoking rate—only 17 percent. Gen Xers, though sporting a higher percentage of smokers than baby boomers, still smoke less than millennials.

So, members of the most progressive, health conscious and environmentally sound generation cohort in history smoke cigarettes more than their parents and grandparents.

How ironic that the information generation does not know better.

In Athens, Georgia, home to the University of Georgia and over 30,000 millennials, smoking is relatively prevalent. Despite laws preventing smoking on the university’s campus, when roaming the streets of downtown on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, one sees more than a few members of the younger generation lighting up.

“Steadily 20 people are [outside of the bar] smoking on a busy night,” said David Ippisch, manager of Hedges, a popular bar in the downtown area.

Nearly every bar with an outdoor porch like Hedges sports late night smokers in Athens. Drink in their left hand and cigarette in their right, this crowd chats under a thick cloud of smoke about everything from election results to climate change.

Lay-Z-Shopper, a brightly lit convenience store located downtown, is one of the most frequented locations for purchase of cigarettes by this group.

“On each night, sometimes, it can be over a thousand people [who buy cigarettes],” said Felix Ahned, an employee who works the Lay-Z-Shopper’s night hours, “the biggest chunk of them are the youth.”

The store’s 24/7 service and below average cigarette prices make it especially attractive to the young people looking to pick up a pack of their favorite heaters while bar hopping . According to Ahned, the majority prefer Marlboro Lights, Camel menthols or Newport menthols.

These preferences are not unique to the millennials of Athens.

In the United States, over 80 percent of adolescent and young adult smokers prefer Marlboro, Newport, and Camel brand cigarettes, according to the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on Adolescent Tobacco Use.

Clearly, these brands are selling something that millennials like, but it is not what you may think.

Rather than a particular flavor, pack type or column length, Marlboro, Camel and Newport sell young people a desirable persona.

They do this through image-based advertising. The image-association created by each brands’ ad campaigns work to transform smoking into an emotional experience and a means to attain a desirable image.

“It’s not just Marlboro: it’s independence; it’s not just Camel: it’s being cool; it’s not just Newport: it’s pure acceptance.” said Dr. Dean Krugman professor emeritus of the University of Georgia and former president of the American Academy of Advertising.

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Independent, cool, accepted: three things millennials aspire to be.

Tobacco companies have used this type of advertising for years. The association of cigarettes with a particular identity, emotion or feeling are, in fact, the only type of advertising law permits them to use.

“With the increasing recognition of health hazards [tobacco companies] changed…to center themselves in emotional appeals, because they cannot be proved wrong,” said Dr. Jay Hamilton, head of the department of entertainment and media studies at the University of Georgia. “This change in tactic means they are beyond the reach of legal constraints on advertising.”

Marlboro, Camel and Newport’s respective images were born of this shift from fact to feeling advertising.  And though they claim to only target adults, the messages communicated by their ad campaigns resonate most with the young.

Take Marlboro for example. In 2014, anti-tobacco groups accused the brand of targeting adolescents as young as 14 with its “Don’t be a maybe, be a Marlboro” ad campaign. The series of advertisements featured images of younger-looking adults kissing, playing guitar and partying followed by statements like, “maybe never fell in love,” “maybe never wrote a song” and “maybe is not invited.”

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Messages and images like those used by Marlboro play to unique facets of the millennial generation. Appreciation of creativity, fear of missing out (aka fomo) and need of peer-approval—three characterisitics commonly recognized as “millennial”—are directly targeted in the “Don’t be a maybe, be a Marlboro” cigarette campaign.

Tobacco companies have successfully tailored their brand messages to millennials. Now they must reach them through choice of correct platform.

Luckily for them, there’s an app for that.

Social media has become nearly synonymous with the millennial generation. Millennials can access Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at virtually any time in any place, and they are notorious for doing just that.

Federal Trade Commission laws have significantly limited the amount of advertising tobacco companies can place on the various social media platforms. As a result, millennials’ encounters with direct tobacco advertising on social media are much less frequent than those with smoking-related posts by celebrities.

Given the exponential increase of celebrities’ reach and influence through use of social media, posts by stars containing smoking-related content act as an extremely powerful means of advertising for tobacco companies, one that comes free of charge.

Three out of the 10 most followed people on Instagram have posted smoking-related content on their Instagram accounts. These are Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber (who recently deleted his page) and Kylie Jenner, who have 88.4, 77.8 and 80.2 million followers respectively. One smoking-related Instagram post a piece potentially exposes the entirety of their combined following—a whopping 246.4 million—to a celebrity-sponsored tobacco promotion.

246.4 million people. That exceeds the population of Indonesia,  the fifth most populous country in the world.

Several other celebrities with large followings have also posted images or videos of themselves lighting up. Some do so on a regular basis.

“These celebrities with a lot of followers… smoke in the Instagram photo or video thereby making it seem glamorous,” said Dr. Joe Phua, assistant professor of advertising at the University of Georgia. “They perpetuate this smoking behavior and then the audience models it.”

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Followers who idolize these stars are particularly at risk of taking up smoking as a means of emulation. But even those who do not look to the famous for behavioral cues can be influenced purely by constant exposure to images of smoking. This phenomenon is called normalization.

Normalization theory , in its most basic form, states that a behavior when seen more frequently in everyday life, starts to be perceived as normal. This change in perception increases people’s likelihood to try the behavior themselves.

“When you’ve normalized the product you’ve made people think it’s okay to use it,” said Krugman who, in collaboration with Dr. William Quinn of Clemson University, introduced normalization as a concept to smoking in 2006 and 2007.

Given millennials’ virtually constant interaction with social media, images of smoking posted by celebrities on the various platforms have an unprecedented effect on the normalization of smoking behavior.

“Here you have a non-advertising thing really having an advertising effect,” said Hamilton referring to celebrity sharing of smoking-related content. “That’s a big part of the problem.”

And while most celebrities do not post smoking related content on their accounts, they do not use them to devolve anti-smoking messages either.

The task of anti-smoking campaigns is similar to that of Biblical David: take down the Goliath that is smoking addiction with merely five stones and a slingshot—also known as government funding.

Despite the unfavorable odds, the most recent surgeon general’s report on smoking and tobacco use indicates some level of success for the anti-smoking movement. Smoking prevalence across all groups continues to decline at a steady rate.

screen-shot-2016-12-02-at-12-48-38-pmThis is a dim light at the end of a particularly long, dark and smoky tunnel.

Even given the decline, nearly a quarter of millennials smoke. And it seems unlikely that they will be the generation to put-out cigarettes for good .

Tags: Millennials, Information Generation, Smoking, Cigarettes, Athens, UGA, University of Georgia,  Lay-Z-Shopper, Camel, Marlboro, Newport, Don’t be a Maybe, be a Marlboro, Don’t be the Target, Anti-smoking, Social Media, Celebrities Smoking

#millenials #smoking #informationgeneration #babyboomers #gen-x #cigarettes #lightup #athens #heater #uga #hedges #layzshopper #smokebreak #bigtobacco #dontbeamaybe #dontbethetarget #fomo #socialmedia #followers #instafamous #smokingcelebs #celebssmoking #kimkardashian #kyliejenner #justinbieber #normalization #antismoking #davidvsgoliath #justputitout #thegenerationtoendsmoking

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