What happened to the Tabacco advertising budgets?
In the western hemisphere advertising tabacco is not done anymore.
Year after year the creativity was stretched to the limits both by the tobacco industry as well as the advertising industry to look for new means of building a top of mind position for the different cigarette brands. When the formula 1 money pit was closed due to legislation the industry got stuck with millions of dollars because no ways of advertising seemed left.
Even though I’m a non smoker I’ve been wondering what the industry, as one of the big, big spenders in advertising has done with the advertising budgets since almost each and every way of advertising in western society has been banned?
I found the answer. Tobacco advertising budget is like water and electricity, it finds the way of the least resistance. With cigarettes costing less then €1,- a package the budgets from the west must have flown east and it’s impressive the amount of exposure that is created. Every city is decorated with dozens of billboards, signs, flags and banners. No wonder we saw children hardly ten years old smoking like they have never done anything else in there lives.
