I’ll Have a Nicotini: How the Tobacco Industry Normalized Smoking With Drinking to Market Tobacco

• In Event: 043 - Section on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Drugs: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?

Abstract

Through a symbolic interactionist theoretical lens, we analyze how and why the tobacco industry paired smoking with alcohol in their lifestyle magazines in the 1990s and 2000s. We argue that the message framing work that the tobacco industry did during this time period impacted the ways in which target populations created a reality that normalized smoking within alcohol-related contexts, such as while in bars and clubs, through a strategy of social norm messaging. The vestiges of this strategy are still in use today in tobacco and e-cigarette marketing. Through a deeper understanding of the processes of reality construction, framing work, and social norm messaging, tobacco control professionals can develop more successful and impactful counter-marketing strategies.

Authors

• Daniel K. Cortese, Governors State University

• Nan Jiang, University of California-San Francisco

• Pamela M Ling, University of California-San Francisco