Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Jul 25;14(7):e0220407. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220407. eCollection 2019.
Video games have grown in popularity since the 1970s, and tobacco imagery is present in a substantial subset of games, including those oriented to youth. Much like exposure to tobacco content in films, exposure to tobacco content in video games may influence smoking uptake and use; however, the tobacco industry's role in facilitating or promoting the use of tobacco imagery in video games is unclear. We explored the industry's interest in and use of video games to market their products to youth and young adults.
We retrieved and analyzed archival tobacco industry documents. We supplemented information from the documents with current and archived versions of several brand and corporate websites and one website containing user-supplied information on video games.
Tobacco companies recognized the youth appeal and marketing potential of video games as early as 1980. Initial marketing ideas included incorporating video game themes into product packaging and design. More fully realized plans focused on incorporating video games into product promotions in bars, as a high visibility way to attract younger patrons and increase long-term marketing opportunities by generating names for tobacco company direct-marketing databases. Tobacco companies also incorporated video games into in-home product promotions, primarily as components of brand websites, in order to enhance brand image and generate repeat website traffic. A similar desire to attract and keep visitors led to discussions about the inclusion of video games on corporate youth smoking prevention websites, although only one company, Lorillard, followed through.
Video game players are an attractive target market for tobacco companies. Video games, as used by these companies, facilitate consumer engagement with particular tobacco brands or particular corporate messages. Eliminating the use of video games as a promotional vehicle may require limiting tobacco marketing in both physical and online environments.
自 20 世纪 70 年代以来，电子游戏越来越受欢迎，烟草图像出现在大量游戏中，包括面向青少年的游戏。就像接触电影中的烟草内容一样，接触电子游戏中的烟草内容可能会影响吸烟的发生和使用；然而，烟草行业在促进或推广电子游戏中使用烟草图像的作用尚不清楚。我们探讨了该行业对电子游戏的兴趣以及利用电子游戏向青少年和年轻人推销其产品的情况。
我们检索并分析了档案中的烟草行业文件。我们用文件中的信息补充了几个品牌和公司网站的当前和存档版本以及一个包含用户提供的电子游戏信息的网站的信息。
烟草公司早在 1980 年就认识到了电子游戏对年轻人的吸引力和营销潜力。最初的营销理念包括将电子游戏主题融入产品包装和设计中。更全面的计划则侧重于将电子游戏融入酒吧的产品促销活动中，这是一种吸引年轻顾客并通过生成烟草公司直邮数据库的名称来增加长期营销机会的高可见度方式。烟草公司还将电子游戏纳入家庭产品促销活动中，主要是作为品牌网站的组成部分，以增强品牌形象并产生重复的网站流量。类似地，为了吸引和留住访客，人们讨论了在公司青少年吸烟预防网站上加入电子游戏的问题，尽管只有一家公司，即 Lorillard，采取了行动。
电子游戏玩家是烟草公司的一个有吸引力的目标市场。这些公司使用的电子游戏促进了消费者与特定烟草品牌或特定公司信息的互动。要消除电子游戏作为促销工具的使用，可能需要限制物理和在线环境中的烟草营销。
