Free Essay On Alcohol And Cigarette Advertisements Should Be Banned

Since time immemorial, alcohol and cigarette advertisements have been targeting the minority in the community, especially the Hispanics. The issue has aroused individuals emotions because of the controversy associated with it. The targeted population has always aired their grievances and condemned the concerned companies for popularizing alcohol and tobacco consumption among the Hispanics. According to Hackbarth et.al, community activists in Chicago alleged that alcohol and tobacco companies had a tendency to target the Hispanics neighborhood for their selfish interests (p.7). Many authors have also established claims and criticized the aim of the advertisements. Therefore, due to the controversial campaign that aims to segment the Hispanic community on the cigarette and alcohol market, there is the need to ban all advertisements associated with alcohol and tobacco.
The advertisement should be banned since they are aimed at targeting particular segments of the society. Moreover, existing evidence indicates that cigarette and alcohol constitute to harmful effects of the health status of the population. The advertisements have increased the rate of alcohol and tobacco consumption in the Hispanic community because they increased awareness in this community. Also, the practice should be condemned since manufacturers spend billions of money on advertisements and promotional campaigns. The ads are designed in a manner that they attract huge population to consume the products. Maxwell and Michael claim that the marketing savvy of alcohol and tobacco companies has increased the intake these products in the Hispanic community. For this reason, it is the right time for the government to ban the commercials because they promote negative vices in the society due to lack of transparency and accountability.
Tobacco Company Executive, R.J Reynolds proved that his company was targeting the African Americans by saying, “We don’t smoke that s.We just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, poor, the black and stupid.” (Balbach et.al 1) This is enough reason indicating the damage aimed at the minority in the community. These aggressive ads have eroded the cultures, traditional and values in the society because of the negative perceptions they induce into the population. Since the minority groups have long been affected, their economic status has continued to deteriorate since alcoholism makes people lose focus in life.
It is evident that alcohol and cigarette advertising has significantly contributed to the controversial debate concerning the ethnic segmentation of alcohol and cigarette market. According to Alaniz, “African-American and Latino neighborhoods had proportionately more billboards advertising alcohol and tobacco than white or Asian neighborhood.” (Alaniz 287). This clearly indicates how billboard advertising is being used to target the ethnic minority communities.
Maxwell and Michael had also supported this idea of using the billboard advertising to focus on the minority groups. They suggest that the alcohol and cigarette companies are more informed about the certain ethnic culture than the health service providers. For instance, the companies understand the cultural themes and hence use them to familiarize the use of alcohol and cigarette among the Hispanic community. Similar to the Alaniz argument, Maxwell and Michael argue that billboards that are displaying cultural themes, such as “Lady and the Tiger” and “The Decade of the Hispanic” are used. They emphasized that such billboards were “strategically placed in the ethnic neighborhood” (Maxwell and Michael 100). Considering that these adverts are clearly targeting the minority groups, I support the argument for the ban of all alcohol and cigarette advertising.
Although the alcohol and tobacco companies are refuting that their adverts target the ethnic minority community, it is evident that they are looking for the vulnerable customers to ensure their survival. Such companies are arguing that they are trying to reach their message to the large percentage of the ethnic minorities who enjoys smoking and drinking. However, these advertisements preach not only “bad business ethics” but also racism. Their business can be considered “bad” because they are practicing targeting marketing that have adverse consequences to their esteemed customers (Moore et al. 92). Such companies target the ethnic minority groups not because they enjoy smoking and drinking but because they know they are vulnerable to their “disease-promoting” products. They are taking advantage of the consumers who are more vulnerable, based on the education, knowledge, maturity, life circumstances, and age among others. If it is true that the ethnic minority communities enjoy smoking and drinking, what is the need of the massive advertising? I think that their intention is to build their brand image among the minorities and legitimize the use of cigarette and tobacco through advertising.
In conclusion, it is clear and persuasive enough that there is a significant relationship between ethnic minorities’ drinking and smoking behaviors and the associated adverts. The alcohol and tobacco adverts that are strategically located in the ethnic minority neighborhood shows that they are major contributing factors to the consumption of alcohol and tobacco among minorities. These minorities that are segregated by the cigarette and alcohol ads include Latino, Hispanic and Black communities. For this reason, such ads seem to contribute to racism and therefore they should be banned.

Work cited

Alaniz, Maria Luisa. "Alcohol availability and targeted advertising in racial/ethnic minority communities." Alcohol Health & Research World (1998)
Balbach, Edith D., Rebecca J. Gasior, and Elizabeth M. Barbeau. "RJ Reynolds' targeting of African Americans: 1988-2000." American Journal of Public Health 93.5 (2003): 822-827.
Hackbarth, Diana P., et al. "Collaborative research and action to control the geographic placement of outdoor advertising of alcohol and tobacco products in Chicago." Public Health Reports 116.6 (2001): 558.
Maxwell, Bruce, and Michael F. Jacobson. "Targeting Hispanics." Marketing Disease to Hispanics: The Selling of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Junk Foods. Washington: Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1989. 98-104. Print.
Moore, David J., Jerome D. Williams, and William J. Qualls. "Target marketing of tobacco and alcohol-related products to ethnic minority groups in the United States." Ethnicity and Disease 6 (1996): 83-98