Tobacco industry marketing and consumer harm perceptions

Tobacco industry marketing strategies, including use of natural imagery, corporate social responsibility claims, and terms such as ‘light' and ‘mild' are employed by many tobacco companies and could pose a serious risk to public health. These marketing tactics may lead to false perceptions of reduced risk and lowered harm among consumers, which has the potential to influence attitudes and behavior surrounding tobacco use. Communication theories offer insight into how consumers process tobacco marketing and how this affects tobacco use. Dual-systems processing theories, research on affect and discrete emotions, the Limited Capacity Model of Mediated Message Processing, and semiotics provide a useful lens for assessing how tobacco marketing can influence consumer perceptions of risk.