Cigar magazines: using tobacco to sell a lifestyle

Objective-To assess the content of two cigar "lifestyle" magazines, Cigar A ficionado and Smoke. Design-Content analysis of cigar focused articles. Subjects-Cigar focused articles (n = 353) from Cigar Aficionado and Smoke m agazines. Main outcome measures-Primary focus; mention of health effects, environment al tobacco smoke, or scientific research; quotation and description of indi viduals; characteristics such as sex, age, ethnicity, smoking status, affil iation, and stance towards cigars; and overall image of cigars. Results-Cigar business-focused articles were the largest category (40%, n = 143), followed by articles about cigar events (12%, n = 42). Notable were articles featuring cigar benefits to raise money for health charities. Cele brities were featured in 341/6 (n = 121) of articles and 96% (n = 271) favo ured cigar use. Only four (1%) articles featured health effects of cigars a s a primary focus. Conclusions-Cigar Aficionado and Smoke broke new ground in tobacco marketin g by combining promotion of product, lifestyle, and industry irk the same v ehicle and linking the medium directly to product related events that exten ded its reach. The creation and marketing of new tobacco use sites challeng es the increasing "isolation" of smokers, and positions cigar use as a soci ally welcome relief from restrictions. Public health advocates should antic ipate and challenge other new tobacco marketing vehicles as communications technologies advance and public spaces for smoking shrink.