[Understand the tobacco industry's strategy for recruiting teens: Lessons from a 1973 marketing document]

For years, the tobacco industry has organized the inoculation of tobacco addiction to adolescents.

The analysis of a 1973 RJReynols^® document identified ten physical and psychological factors in order to increase the number of young users for a brand of cigarettes. These young people are classified into three groups: pre-smokers, learners and smokers.

The taste for pre-smokers and learners and nicotine for smokers are main physical parameters. The industry clearly knows that tobacco is mainly consumed because of nicotine addiction, so it is necessary to make adolescents addict. It is interesting to note that cigarette pack was in 1973 a positive factor to attract young smokers, whereas now with the arrival of the neutral packaging, the tobacco industry declares that packaging has no influence to attract teenagers ! Of the psychological factors, the only negative factor is the self-image of the smoker. The tobacco industry already recognized in 1973 that smokers were unhappy about smoking. For learners, self-image and the experience of adults are most important factor, which is why the industry strives to create a positive image and convey message that smoking initiation is a ritual to become adult. According to the tobacco industry, stress and alleviation of boredom are also important points in turning pre-smokers into learners and learners into smokers.

This article aims to provide practical tools for understanding industry initiatives targeting adolescents. The attached tool can be used by the teens or adults involved to understand the optimization of teenagers tobacco marketing.