Source: Jean Kilbourne and Rick Pollay, Pack of Lies, 1992.

For a long time, smoking was considered a male activity - but tobacco manufacturers quickly discovered the lucrative female market. Over the past few decades, aggressive advertising campaigns for women have equated smoking with emancipation, glamour, and slimness - and have successfully lured countless young women into the habit. In the U.S., cigarettes exclusively designed for women are now commonplace - with brands such as Virginia Slims, Eve, Now, More, Satin and Misty aggressively marketing to women. These brands are often sold in packages that are appealing to girls and young women – Virginia Slims offers its brand in smaller “purse packs” available in mauve and teal, and which resemble packages of cosmetics. These campaigns have been very successful. In fact, in the six years following the introduction of Virginia Slims cigarettes, the number of American teenage girls who smoked more than doubled. (Virginia Slims is the world's number one brand of women's cigarettes.) Although these brands are not available in Canada, their empowering advertising campaigns can be found in the American magazines read by Canadian women.

According to Statistics Canada, slightly more adult men smoke than women. However, among the 15-19 age group, as many teenaged girls smoke as teenaged boys.

Canadians Who Smoke (2007)

Ages 15 - 19

Male
15%

Female
15%


Ages 20 - 24

Male
28%

Female
23%

Source: Smoking in Canada, Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada, 2008.

American health officials have noted a similar trend in the U.S., where smoking among teenaged girls has also risen sharply. The Surgeon General's 2001 report on women and smoking found that nearly all women who smoke start as teenagers - and that 30 per cent of female high school smokers continue to smoke into adulthood.

The report clearly identifies tobacco advertising as a major influence on women who smoke. It concludes that:

• Women have been extensively targeted in tobacco marketing, both in North America and overseas.
  
  
• Tobacco marketing is dominated by themes of both social desirability and independence, which are conveyed through slim, attractive, athletic models.
  
  
• The dependence of the media on revenues from tobacco advertising oriented to women, coupled with tobacco-company sponsorship of women's fashions and of artistic, athletic and political events, has tended to stifle media coverage of the health consequences of smoking among women.

Know your target audience

When it comes to reaching girls and women, Big Tobacco has done its homework. In a report on how the tobacco industry targets women and girls, the U.S.-based organization Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids notes that:

"They [members of the tobacco industry] have conducted extensive market research on the attitudes of women and girls, to better understand how to target their products and their advertising. By focusing their research on how females view themselves, their aspirations and the social pressure they face, the cigarette companies have developed some of the most aggressive and sophisticated marketing campaigns in history for reaching and influencing women and girls."

Women's magazines and tobacco messages

From August 1999 to August 2000, the American Council on Science and Health monitored twelve popular women's magazines for cigarette advertisements, smoking-related messages in articles and photographs, and the quality and nature of each magazine's health messages.

All of the magazines surveyed accepted cigarette advertisements and published many health-related articles, but the researchers found that less than one per cent of articles about women's health had an anti-smoking theme. For example, although articles addressed breast cancer, they failed to address the number-one cause of cancer death in women - lung disease.

Of the magazines surveyed - Cosmopolitan, Elle, Family Circle, Glamour, Harpers Bazaar, Ladies' Home Journal, Mademoiselle, McCall's, Redbook, Self, Vogue, and Women's Day - Self magazine illustrated the greatest commitment to women's health, by featuring the lowest number of tobacco ads and the highest number of anti-smoking messages. Vogue showed the least commitment to women's health, with no anti-smoking articles - and over half the issues included pictures of models and famous people smoking.

Why do women smoke?

According to Health Canada, most women smoke for one or more of these reasons:

• to relax and take a break
  
  
• to be sociable
  
  
• to deal with stress and depression
  
  
• to fight feelings of helplessness, and to deal with anger and frustration
  
  
• to avoid gaining weight
  
  
• as a sign of control over their lives
  
  
• because they are addicted

The women most likely to be at risk are usually:

• unemployed or low-income
  
  
• less-educated
  
  
• native
  
  
• Francophone
  
  
• in blue collar jobs

Health hazards to women from smoking

• Smoking is the leading killer of women in Canada. Every 35 minutes, a Canadian woman dies as a result of smoking.
  
  
• Diseases shared with men include: emphysema, chronic bronchitis, peripheral vascular disease, heart disease, stroke, cancers of the mouth, larynx, and bladder.
  
  
• Risks associated with reproduction: decreased fertility; higher risk of miscarriage, lower birth weights, stillbirth, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
  
  
• Reduced estrogen levels, leading to menstrual disorders, early menopause and osteoporosis.
  
  
• Women smokers who use contraceptive pills are 10 to 20 times more likely to suffer from heart disease and stroke. Generally, women who smoke are five times more likely to be killed by a stroke.
  
  
• Women who smoke get more coughs, colds and minor illnesses.
  
  
• Cancer of the cervix often strikes younger women.
  
  
• Lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer.
  
  
• Middle-aged women who smoke are likely to be as wrinkled as nonsmokers who are 15-20 years older.

Asian women - the new frontier

The world Health Organization (WHO) estimates that only 7 per cent of women in developing countries smoke (compared with 48 per cent of men). This represents a tremendous untapped market for tobacco manufacturers.

Western cigarette manufacturers have always had a distinct advantage in developing countries, where foreign brands are regarded as important status symbols. They've had no difficulty encouraging men to smoke their brands, but in recent years, tobacco companies have turned their attention to girls and women. Women in Asian countries - especially China - are particularly appealing. According to the WHO, women in China (where only 2 per cent of women smoke) represent the largest potential market for tobacco companies. The WHO report "Women and the Tobacco Epidemic" includes this quote from a Philip Morris Vice President:

No discussion of the tobacco industry in the year 2000 would be complete without addressing what may be the most important feature on the landscape, the [female] China market. In every respect, China confounds the imagination.

To attract more women smokers, Chinese tobacco marketers have joined the Virginia Slims bandwagon and created cigarette brands for women. Chahua and Yuren (which means "pretty woman") are slim, elegant cigarettes that are promoted as low in tar, and milder than men's brands.

Tobacco advertisements geared to Asian women feature themes that would be familiar to North American women: independence, stress relief and weight control.


__________________________

Sources:

“Getting Smoke-Free: An Information Kit for Community Organizations Working with Women.” Health Canada, 2001.  <http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/pubs/tobac-tabac/gsf-vsf/index-eng.php>

Samet, Jonathan and Soon-Young Yoon (eds.), “Women and the Tobacco Epidemic: Challenges for the 21st Century.” The World Health Organization, 2001.

“Smoking in Canada”, Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada, 2008.
 
The Surgeon General’s Report on Women and Smoking. March 27, 2001.

“Tobacco Industry Targeting of Women and Girls.” Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Spring 2001.