A posse of Marlboro “cowboys” that goes around photocopying the identification cards of bar patrons has descended on Eugene, wearing red button-up shirts and blue bandanas. One local group is ready for a showdown.
“It’s a small place and there are a lot of representatives from Marlboro,” journalism major Scott Littlejohn said at Jogger’s Bar and Grill on Tuesday evening. “The first thing they asked me was, ‘Are you a smoker?’ No, ‘Hello.’ Just, ‘Are you a smoker?’ The second thing they asked me is, ‘Are you 21?’ We’re in a bar!”
The representatives have been hired by Philip Morris, the company that owns Marlboro, to arouse interest in free trips to one of three Marlboro ranches in Montana and Arizona. The group of about 13 cowboys has been visiting places like Jogger’s asking customers to complete a form that could win them a free trip to “the best time of your life.” But several cowboys, who deferred all questions to Philip Morris, told patrons they could not be held responsible for promotional materials mailed to the patron’s listed addresses.
The strategy is “buzz” marketing. A company sponsors a cutting-edge promotion or activity to attract consumers who are unresponsive to traditional advertising or are skeptical of its messages.
Companies such as General Motors Corporation and Mary Kay have used the tactic, said David Boush, an associate marketing professor at the University.
“People are becoming increasingly skeptical and cynical about ads,” he said. “Using other techniques like this gets around the barriers to attention.”
But studies have shown that even stubborn consumers will pay attention to their peers, he said. Some companies go to even greater lengths to enlist “cool” peers, or “opinion leaders,” to use their products and give them to friends and acquaintances, Boush said.
“It relies on opinion leadership of one form or another,” he said. “It’s seeding the area, so to speak, with a person who influences people around them.”
Elizabeth Miglioretto, a Lane County Public Health educator, said big tobacco companies began buzz marketing with a fervor in 1998, after five tobacco moguls were held accountable for smoking-related medical costs in 46 states. The $206 billion settlement also banned cartoon mascots such as Joe Camel, and toughened restrictions on how tobacco companies market products to youngsters.
“What we know, given the Master Settlement Agreement, is that they really have to be more careful with their advertising and to what target group they advertise,” Miglioretto said. “The college-age population has become the target group.”
A Philip Morris representative said the company does not grant interviews to student publications, such as the Oregon Daily Emerald, and was unwilling to provide information about the Marlboro Bar Nights campaign. But the tobacco giant has explained its motivations to organize bar promotions.
“We know we have a large number of smokers who attend bars and clubs, and it’s a social environment that lets us interact directly with our customers,” Philip Morris spokeswoman Katie Otto told The Cincinnati Enquirer in 1999.
Associate marketing professor Marian Friestad said when buzz marketing is used to sell products it sometimes raises
ethical concerns.
“Is a person at a bar recommending a malt liquor beverage because they like it or because they’re being paid to recommend it?” she said. “It’s a question of being honest and upfront about whether a message is being sponsored by a company or not.”
Especially if that company is selling a product that causes 440,000 premature deaths annually, as documented in a smoking mortality report issued in 2002 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There’s nothing wrong with it except when it involves questionable products like cigarettes,” Boush said. “If you’re trying to get people to buy organic vegetables, not many would have a problem with that. But if you’re trying to get people to smoke Marlboros … .
“It might have been better leaving Eugene out. There was bound to be a reaction.”
Tobacco Free Lane County is organizing a counter-promotion that coincides with a Marlboro Bar Nights visit to Club Tsunami at 9 p.m. Friday.
The group will distribute information and show off “The Barfburo,” a repainted Volkswagen van. Members said they are opposed to any product that “has no benefit of any kind.”
“They need to sell tobacco,” Miglioretto said. “They need new customers because their customers quit and die.”