Cigarettes and advertising have had a rocky relationship and a long and complicated history. Smoking ads have gone from being a huge revenue earner to being outlawed in most countries. Tobacco companies, as much as you may hate them, have always had to fight to keep their businesses afloat because of growing government regulation and public outcries. Back in the golden days, before the 1950's tobacco companies were pumping out smoking ads like they were going out of style, and people were sucking them up... literally. Every Tom, Dick and Harry smoked, and you weren't considered to be cool unless you had a cigarette hanging out of your mouth. 

The swing towards banning smoking ads was not a surprising one, considering all the health concerns that go along with cigarette smoking. In modern times, it is estimated that cigarette smoking is the cause of 20% of deaths in the world. This means that the dangers of cigarette smoking are second only to vehicle accidents. It has been proven that cigarettes are the number one cause of cancer, as well as contributing to heart disease, high blood pressure, premature aging, emphysema and a wide range of dental problems. With increased awareness of these facts, the governments of the world have been forced to place bans on all sorts of smoking ads.

Before the bans, tobacco companies would peddle their wares in any ways they could. This included catchy jingles on the radio, beautiful people having a wonderful time with their cigarette smoking friends on the television, banners on the side of highways and print based advertisements in magazines and newspapers. People were being constantly bombarded by the message that a cigarette is all you need to make it big in life. To top it all off, tobacco companies seemed to have a monopoly on sports events and sports teams. You couldn't go to any football game, hockey match, horse or car race, without these smoking ads being plastered all over the billboards, football jerseys and racing cars.

Smoking Ads and Their Effect on Children

No one would ever admit this, but children where always the main target of these smoking ads. It made sense, the tobacco companies knew that if they could hook someone into a smoking habit at a young age, then they would more likely to be hooked for life, meaning they gain a lifetime consumer of their product. Some of the underhanded tactics used to get children smoking included pop idols, cartoons and subliminal messages through movies and television shows. If you watch any movie filmed around the 1950's you are bound to see many stars of the day puffing away on their favourite brand of cigarette.

It took a long time before smoking ads were banned by governments. Surprisingly, the United States, for whom the smoking culture was the most ingrained of all the countries, was the first to introduce a ban on smoking ads on both television and radio in 1970. However, up until present day you can still find cigarette advertising in print in the US. Canada was one of the first to ban advertisements across the board in 1988, closely followed by Europe and Australia. Many countries now also have legislation that says that packets of cigarettes have to have graphic anti-smoking ads on them, making being in the tobacco business even harder. Imagine if McDonald's hat to have pictures of grossly overweight people on their burgers.

Anti Smoking Ads

Nowadays, there still advertisements on television about smoking, except now the smoking ads are public service announcements, warning you about all the health risks involved with smoking. These ads are quite often graphically confronting, showing pictures of peoples blackened lungs after smoking for 20 years, or people with sever dental problems. These anti smoking ads are usually run by the government and payed for by taxpayers. The jury's still out as to whether these advertisements make any difference, but there has certainly been a decrease in cigarette smoking in recent times. Of course, this could also be because the places people can now smoke are much fewer than they were a few years ago too.

There is another stream of advertising geared towards the smoker, and these are the "How To Quit Smoking" ads. These are becoming particularly prolific on the Internet, and unfortunately, many of them are scams and schemes. People trying to cash in on others addictions to make a quick buck. If you are really serious about quitting, try not to pay any attention to these quit smoking ads. Instead, make an appointment to see your local doctor and discuss what the best technique is for you.