![]() ![]() Searches were conducted between Jand November 1, 2012, and follow-up documents were reviewed as needed for clarification until November 5, 2013. We analyzed tobacco industry documents related to marketing research and marketing strategies relevant to low SES women available in the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library ( ) using standard iterative snowball sampling techniques employed in previous document research and described in detail elsewhere. We found that since the 1970s, tobacco companies have targeted low SES women in specific subgroups using a variety of strategies including price, design, and novel products. We defined SES as disadvantaged social standing, whether related to income, power, privilege, or access to resources, and regardless of whether that standing was permanent or transient. In this study, we describe tobacco industry strategies targeting low socioeconomic status (SES) women in the US. The disproportionate burden tobacco imposes on socially disadvantaged women may be due to tobacco industry marketing activities focused on them.Īlthough previous studies have examined tobacco marketing to various female sub-populations, there has not been a comprehensive evaluation of marketing strategies focused on socially and economically disadvantaged women. Smoking has also been associated with lack of social support, unsafe neighborhoods, and unmet needs for food and medical care. In addition to low income status, cigarette smoking in the United States is associated with other aspects of social disadvantage, including low educational achievement and lower occupational attainment among African Americans. Low-income female smokers are also less likely to quit, despite similar numbers of quit attempts. ![]() In the US, low-income women are more likely to smoke than their more socially advantaged peers: 28.7% of women below the poverty line between 2005-2010 smoked, compared with 16.7% of women at or above poverty. In addition, tobacco marketing messages were designed to appeal to what tobacco companies perceived to be women’s psychosocial needs, such as offering escape fantasies to overworked and stressed women with Brown and Williamson’s (B&W) Capri brand cigarette slogan, “She’s gone to Capri and she’s not coming back.” As higher income, more educated people stopped smoking, tobacco companies looked for ways to maintain their consumer base, including targeting low-income women. For decades, marketing strategies for women have used emancipation symbolism, from the American Tobacco Company’s “Women! Light another torch of freedom!” in 1929 to Philip Morris’ (PM) “You’ve come a long way, baby” in 1968. Tobacco companies have viewed women as a key US consumer base since the 1920s when cigarettes were promoted as an appetite suppressant (“Reach for a Lucky Instead ”). ![]()
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