Fitting into the Box: The Significance of Branding and Disparity in Image Perception
By Claire Heath

 

 

Cigarette brand advertising is believed to be effective in convincing young people and others to smoke using enticing images. The growing anti-smoking campaign has made TV comercials, billboads and many print ads disappear. Marlboro has complied with these regulations though their campaign relies heavily on image advertising. Throughout the interviews in the Marlboro Collection many people involved reiterate this point: Marlboro is "an image campaign" (John Landry). The cowboy and Marlboro Country campaigns focus on freedom, masculinity, escapism, the American dream and independence. Makers of the ads stress the importance of authenticity for the viewer to feel a connection to the brand. Although all the students I interviewed could describe a Marlboro ad many of them had different ideas of what a Marlboro smoker looked like. In many of the interviews people talked about Marlboro as their parent's cigarette, a more traditional brand. Students relied much more heavily on peer and community perceptions to formulate their concept of the different brands. One of the male students interviewed told a story about trying to smoke Parliment cigarettes because a group of tough older men in his neighborhood smoked them. Brand image is very important, especially for young people. It is one way people create their identity in a commodified world. However, there is a disparity between what Phillip Morris wanted their Marlboro image to be and the local understanding of that image. People's brand associations are often very different from the ones projected by an advertisment. What the ads do create is brand awareness, which makes more heavily advertised brands more recognizable and more accessable. Apart from working as a reminder, I question how persuasive advertising is in producing smokers.