Many things can affect a substance 's consumption in society, from demographics to what they see in the media. This paper will be focused on how the media, advertisements to be more specific, has affected the consumption of cigarettes. Advertising comes in many shapes and forms: paper advertisements, commercials, or even product placement in film. To some extent, people are controlled by the messages delivered to them by the media through subliminal messaging. It’s well known that a person’s desires stem from external stimuli that have shaped them throughout their entire lives, a fact that the tobacco companies use to their advantage via advertisements. Companies tend to abide by a well-known …show more content…
In the following years, however, smoking rates in movies declined which correlated directly to the decline of the use of cigarettes by the public. This made it appear as though the rate that smoking happened in movies directly affected the rate at which people smoked in real life. This turned out to be false when smoking rates began to increase again in film. Approaching the year 2002, smoking rates in movies began to increase in movies to the same rate that they were in the 1950s. According to Stanton Glantz and his team’s research, smoking rates in the 1950s “were twice as prevalent as it was in 2002.” Glantz’s research shows that while smoking rates in movies were roughly the same during these two years, smoking only saw a slight increase, whereas it had been decreasing in the years between 1950 and 2002. (Glantz, 2004) This in mind, the public at this time was much more aware of the effects associated with smoking …show more content…
As shown in the graph below, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as new regulations come into place smoking rates constantly are at a decrease. There was a spike of smoking rates in the 1990s that then decreased after the enforcement of the Tobacco Control Act. According to the New York Times, smoking rates are hitting an all-time low due to high taxes and low exposure via advertisements as regulations continue to become stricter in the industry. In recent years, post 2012, smoking in cinema has also decreased in correlation to the decline of smoking