Did you know that approximately three thousand young people start smoking everyday and that about 90% of smokers that continue to smoke later on in life start before the age of twenty-one?? As much as Phillip Morris would like to deny the fact that their product is not geared towards young people, at least to a certain extent, they can't, because it is. My project focuses on how cigarette advertisers in general attract younger audiences, and then I will relate that to how Marlboro specifically attracts younger people. Also, my project will cover how the Marlboro campaign was used "as is" or altered in foreign countries to cater to teenagers.

Cigarette advertisers very deliberately and obviously focus on attracting younger people to smoke. They link cigarette smoking with coolness, taking risks, and growing up. They associate cigarettes with rebellion and independence. What young adult struggling for an identity is not going to want to be a part of this type of group? Another tactic that advertisers use is free giveaways. They giveaway entire pacts of cigarettes to people in and around clubs and music venues. Camel even has something called Camel Cash which convinces kids to buy their cigarettes in order to obtain free items, such as flip-flops and plastic sunglasses. The items are juvenile and obviously convince younger people to buy. Advertisers of cigarettes sponsor rock concerts and sporting events. These are generally attended by the younger population and it really gets the cigarette's name out to people. The advertising to younger people is not always so "innocent" though. Some things that the advertisers do are quite deceitful and conniving. Cigarette advertisers will go so far as to sponsor "Helping youths say no to tobacco" programs. Ironically these programs encourage kids to smoke because it glamorizes smoking as "adult." Children want to be grown up so obviously they are drawn in. On the same lines of deceit as these programs are the articles that are so often written in magazines in order to address cancer. All people, but especially children, rely on the media for information, but the media is censored. Cigarettes so often advertise in magazines so in order to keep the advertiser's business, the magazines "omit" important information about the hazards of smoking in their articles. Children learn at a young age that smoking is "bad", but at the same time, the media has a huge influence on their actions.

Phillip Morris specifically attracts younger people in many ways. One incredibly obvious example of this is in the fact that they changed the packaging on the Marlboro lights to a gold package. The reasoning behind this is that gold is associated with moderness and freshness, unlike the old packaging, which people just associated with their parents and didn't want to have anything to do with. The Marlboro Country and Marlboro Man campaigns are anti authoritarian and represent an uncomplicated period of American life. Picture a rugged, natural man on an open plain with only his horse and the sunset. He represents the free-spirit and he doesn't need to answer to anyone. These are the ideals that children and young adults strive for in life, so they specifically are pulled into purchasing Marlboro Cigarettes. Another aspect of the Marlboro campaign that is geared towards younger people is the Adventure team. This is a group of 10 people that are sponsored by Marlboro to basically live on the edge. They go out and rock climb, bike, car race, and do other dangerous activities wearing the Marlboro name. Children see that and think to themselves, "Wow. They are cool and they are wearing Marlboro gear. I want to be just like them." It is a sneaky process, but it gets children into the product.

On an international level Marlboro also does things to attract younger people. In Argentina the cowboy campaign was not successful, so they have a campaign called the Formula One campaign. This campaign uses "famous" people to get the word out about Marlboro. The "famous" people used are usually sports figures that are familiar to the younger Argentinean population. The campaign was described by Arguelles, an Argentinean Marlboro worker as, "a world of adventure, emotion, and competition." Universally, these are characteristics that younger people want to embody.