The Cigarette Manufacturers' Efforts to Promote Tobacco to the U.S. Military

Abstract

This article describes findings from review of tobacco industry documents regarding promotion of tobacco to the military, and efforts to influence Department of Defense policies regarding the use and sale of tobacco products. The documents reveal that the industry has targeted the military for decades for reasons including: (1) the volume of worldwide military personnel; (2) the opportunity to attract young men who fit a specific socioeconomic and cultural profile; (3) potential carryover of profits to civilian markets; and (4) the unusual price structure of commissaries and exchanges. The industry used distinctive promotion methods such as in-store merchandising, sponsorships, and even brand development to target the military, both in the United States and abroad during times of conflict. Legislative activity to protect tobacco promotion to this vulnerable population was carried out in response to smoking policy changes proposed by the Department of Defense. The tobacco industry has contributed to the high prevalence of smoking in the military and among veterans.

Military tobacco use: A synthesis of the literature on prevalence, factors related to use, and cessation interventions

“…Further, it has been suggested that tobacco advertising has been designed to attract young enlisted personnel to tobacco use (Haddock et al, 2005). In fact, Joseph et al (2005) believe that the tobacco industry has promoted tobacco use among young enlisted personnel because of the large (a) volume of personnel, (b) number of personnel from a specific sociodemographic and cultural profile, (c) carryover of military tobacco users who leave the military and return to the civilian sector, and (d) price discrepancy between military concession tobacco costs compared with the cost of tobacco in the civilian market. Also, given the evidence indicating that SLT use may be associated with adult-onset smoking initiation (Haddock et al, 2001), future military policies should address all forms of tobacco use, not just smoking tobacco (i.e., cigarettes, cigars).…”

“…Recognizing that tobacco may have adverse health effects, the military stopped providing cigarettes in rations in 1975 (Joseph, Muggli, Pearson, & Lando, 2005). By the mid-1980s, all branches of the military recognized the negative effects of tobacco, instituting a zero-tolerance policy on using tobacco indoors, and began an active tobacco-reduction campaign (Bachman et al, 1999;Bushnell, Forbes, Goffaux, Dietrich, & Wells, 1997).…”

A formative examination of messages that discourage tobacco use among junior enlisted members of the United States military

“…One potential explanation for the high rates of use is the pro-tobacco messages directed at military members. For instance, document analysis has demonstrated that the tobacco industry is specifically targeting young adults (Ling & Glantz, 2002) and military members (Joseph, Muggli, Pearson, & Lando, 2005) with messages designed to encourage tobacco consumption. In fact, pro-tobacco messages frequently appear in military installation newspapers (Haddock et al, 2005).…”

Testing antismoking messages for Air Force trainees

“…Tobacco companies have been aggressively targeting military service members4 5 since at least World War I, providing free tobacco samples in combat rations during World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War6 7 and Operation Desert Storm 8. Owing to ongoing tobacco industry lobbying, as of 2015, tobacco was continuing to be sold in military stores at deep discounts,8–10 despite the US Department of Defense policy that all tobacco products be within 5% of the going market rate 11.…”