Tobacco industry misappropriation of American Indian culture and traditional tobacco.

Publisher: BMJ Pub. Group Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 9209612 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1468-3318 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 09644563 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Tob Control Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BMJ Pub. Group, c1992-

Culture* ; Indians, North American*; Marketing/*methods ; Tobacco Industry/*methods ; Tobacco Products/*statistics & numerical data; Humans

Objective: Describe the extent to which tobacco industry marketing tactics incorporated American Indian culture and traditional tobacco.
Methods: A keyword search of industry documents was conducted using document archives from the Truth Tobacco Documents Library. Tobacco industry documents (n=76) were analysed for themes.
Results: Tobacco industry marketing tactics have incorporated American Indian culture and traditional tobacco since at least the 1930s, with these tactics prominently highlighted during the 1990s with Natural American Spirit cigarettes. Documents revealed the use of American Indian imagery such as traditional headdresses and other cultural symbols in product branding and the portrayal of harmful stereotypes of Native people in advertising. The historical and cultural significance of traditional tobacco was used to validate commercially available tobacco.
Conclusions: The tobacco industry has misappropriated culture and traditional tobacco by misrepresenting American Indian traditions, values and beliefs to market and sell their products for profit. Findings underscore the need for ongoing monitoring of tobacco industry marketing tactics directed at exploiting Native culture and counter-marketing tactics that raise awareness about the distinction between commercial and traditional tobacco use. Such efforts should be embedded within a culturally sensitive framework to reduce the burden of commercial tobacco use.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared.
(© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)

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Keywords: advertising and promotion; priority/special populations; tobacco industry documents

Date Created: 20180221 Date Completed: 20190320 Latest Revision: 20190320

20221213

PMC6073916

10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2017-053950

29459389