A Study on the Use of Alcohol in Magazines Published by the Tobacco Industry was done under the Title "Booze and Butts"

Amanuel Sercu^*
*Correspondence: Amanuel Sercu, Department of Kinesiology & Health Education, University of Texas at Austin, San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, USA, Email:

Description

More than 480,000 premature deaths occur annually in the United States as a result of tobacco use, which is the leading preventable disease and death cause. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services smoking and exposure to second hand smoke are to blame for 87% of deaths from lung cancer, 61% of deaths from pulmonary disease, and 32% of deaths from coronary heart disease each year. According to Jamal, 17.8% of adults in the US reported having smoked in the previous 30 days. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcohol use accounts for nearly 88,000 preventable deaths annually. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (2015), 7.0% of adult Americans had alcohol use disorders in 2013. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), excessive alcohol consumption raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and cancers of the liver, colon, breast, mouth, throat, and esophagus. Lung disease, heart disease, and mouth, throat, and esophagus cancer are all more likely to occur when alcohol and tobacco use are combined [1].

Tobacco and alcohol use are frequently combined, particularly among young adults. A study of college students in the United States found that 98% of current (past 30-day) smokers reported drinking alcohol in the previous year. Alcohol consumption is frequently involved in smoking episodes. According to a 2013 study by Jiang & Ling, 95 percent of young adult bar patrons in San Diego, California, reported smoking while drinking alcohol. Young adults enjoy smoking while also drinking, and they view smoking and drinking as highly paired behaviors, particularly in social settings. The combination of smoking and drinking has become the norm, and young adults view smoking in bars as “sociable” tobacco companies have developed marketing strategies to establish a connection between tobacco and alcohol through research into the drinking habits of young adults as well as their preferences for various brands and types of alcohol. These marketing strategies take advantage of and reinforce social norms about using alcohol and tobacco together [2].

Publicizing impacts individuals' wellbeing ways of behaving. Ads for tobacco cause adolescents and young adults to start and continue smoking and are linked to the choice of cigarette brand. In a similar vein, intention to consume alcohol is linked to exposure to alcohol advertising an increase in drinking and brand selection It's possible that the message that co-use-even if it's just saying, "I only smoke when I am at a bar and I am drinking" is a normal part of young adult social activities will be reinforced by the images and messaging that link tobacco with alcohol, such as those in tobacco advertising. These images and messages are framed to be consistent with social norms about smoking and drinking. It also builds on other tobacco marketing strategies to influence public perceptions of smoking as a legitimate normative behavior with positive social benefits [3].

There is a lack of research on advertising that depicts both alcohol and tobacco. A previous content analysis of the general magazines that are popular among young adults revealed that tobacco advertisements frequently featured images of alcohol or text that made references to alcohol. Lifestyle magazines produced by tobacco companies and sent to smokers via direct mail are, however, a novel and intriguing source of tobacco advertising. The tobacco industry produced lifestyle magazines primarily in the 1990s and 2000s to communicate with young adults and strengthen connections with smokers. Many of these magazines featured young adults' lifestyles and values in the articles, images, and advertisements in order to reinforce specific cigarette brand images. Tobacco companies have editorial control over the content of these lifestyle magazines for the tobacco industry, which enables them to seamlessly incorporate advertising messages into the magazine covers, articles, and ads to create an entire magazine that conveys the advertising messages. This contrasts with mainstream magazines, which are not produced by tobacco companies and where tobacco companies are unable to link magazine content with their tobacco marketing campaigns due to the publishing companies' editorial control. As a result, lifestyle magazines are a unique resource for examining how tobacco companies used alcohol to build and strengthen the brand identity of cigarettes. The majority of lifestyle magazines are no longer produced by tobacco companies today for unknown reasons. However, these historical texts offer a novel perspective on how tobacco companies might reinforce the links between alcohol and tobacco use through the production of lifestyle media. There is some evidence to suggest that these marketing strategies have spread to other channels, such as websites for tobacco brands. Targeted interventions to address paired use of alcohol and tobacco may benefit from a deeper comprehension of these marketing strategies [4].

We conducted a content analysis of a collection of lifestyle magazines produced by the tobacco industry to: Describe the frequency of alcohol references in various parts of the magazines. Describe the kinds of alcohol featured in each part of the magazines and compare the differences in alcohol references based on the magazines' intended gender orientation. The intensity of using alcohol to promote cigarettes is reflected in the frequency of alcohol references in both images and text. It may also indicate the significance of this marketing strategy for tobacco companies and whether gender differences exist. To further investigate gender-specific targeting, the various references' alcoholic beverage types may reveal whether and how tobacco companies might use gender-specific alcohol preferences to target messages to men or women [5].

Conclusion

We looked at all of the lifestyle magazines in the Trinkets and Trash archive (trinketsandtrash.org), which is a surveillance system and archive that collects, documents, and monitors historical and contemporary tobacco products and promotional materials (such as magazines, advertisements, direct mail, e-mails, sweepstakes, coupon promotions, and brand websites). Monitors who have signed up to receive direct mail promotions from various tobacco brands are used in Trinkets and Trash. Among these promotional items were controlled circulation magazines produced by tobacco companies. This is the best collection of tobacco company limited edition magazines that are currently available, and it covers a fairly broad range of topics. There were six different magazines in the collection. There was a sum of 73 unique issues of the six magazines accessible. The magazines included in this analysis are described in greater detail .We looked at all 73 issues of the magazines, which had 1558 articles, 444 tobacco advertisements, and 695 non-tobacco advertisements.

Acknowledgement

None.

Conflict of Interest

None.

References

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