Pretty in Pink

Little girls love pink, and now that I am a "big girl," I still can't get enough of everything and anything pink. The walls of my room at home are dubbed by my parents as "Pepto Bismol Pink" and my room at school dons a more subtle pastel pink. My sheets are bright pink zebra print and I even have a pink cell phone. A lot of my belongings are alotta pink, but not because I have some crazy obsession (well... maybe a little) but because products marketed to teens and young girls are pink pink pink! Take a look at Victoria's Secret, their successful Pink! line is the personification of the color: fun, girlie, youthful, comfortable, silly, cute, sexy, wild, sassy... and the list goes on and on. Or what about my best childhood girlfriend, Barbie? The Barbie website may be the one thing in this world pinker than my Pepto Bismol bedroom.

So all of these brands use pink to target young women, no big deal right? It is a smart marketing and branding scheme to say the least. So when cigarette companies try to get in on the pink craze, why does everyone get so upset? Cigarette companies are just trying to advertise and sell their product like everyone else, right? Oh, wait, I guess there is a small difference: my hoodie from Victoria's Secret doesn't cause cancer.

I remember looking at Virginia Slims ads in a previous communications class, and as I was searching the internet for the old ads from the late 60's and 70's with the slogan "You've come a long way, baby," I came across a new cigarette that Philip Morris USA has developed for Virginia Slims called the "Purse Pack." The Purse Pack has pink, sleek rectangular packaging with square ends. The 20 cigarettes the pack holds are slimmer in diameter than a typical cigarette.

Learn more about the Purse Pack from this article written for USA Today. Here is another

interesting article from BrandWeek.

Virginia Slims are not the only brand of cigarettes marketed towards women. Camel No. 9 cigarettes are also designed to appeal to women. The packs are pink and black in color and the longer 100's are marketed as stiletto, referring to the sky high heels that are always in style and a classic symbol synonymous for femininity. Although I smoked Marlboro Lights, on occasion I would buy a pack of No. 9's, not because I liked the cigarettes - I actually dislike the flavor of Camel cigarettes - but solely for the pink packaging (the cigarettes themselves are pink too, with a little camel on the end).

The Center for Disease Control has studied the effects of tobacco on women and the Surgeon General's latest report on women and smoking was conducted in 2001.

There is no doubt that these marketing techniques used to attract women to certain cigarette brands are effective, but are such ads ethical? Shame on the cigarette companies for luring young women to smoke with pretty packaging and glitzy advertisements, OR, perhaps shame on us as consumers. Cigarette companies operate with a goal of selling as much as their product as possible, but that doesn't mean we have to buy it. In an age where we are marketed to constantly by brands of every kind, perhaps we need to start acting as smart consumers and not be fooled by every ad that is put in front of us. If you look behind the pink, the glitz and the glamour of female branded cigarettes, all you'll find is a cloud of smelly and cancerous smoke.

Click here to watch a video about cigarettes branded towards women.