The 1998 general agreement between US tobacco manufacturers and US state authorities bans payments to promote tobacco products in movies, television shows, theater productions or live performances, videos and video games. This is one of a number of measures aimed to change the "smoking culture" often portrayed in the media.
2. With cigarettes, in marketing terms, the brand's identity is most crucial in the pack design. The pack design signals which club the user belongs to. Changing pack design for cigarettes so they appeared plain wrapped, or in forms more similar to medical products, would go a long way to countering tobacco advertising.
(2) There is remarkably little evidence that advertising plays an important role in getting people to smoke, as opposed to getting them to smoke a particular brand. The 1989 US surgeon general's report conceded that "there is no scientifically rigorous study available to the public that provides a definitive answer to the basic question of whether advertising and promotion increase the level of tobacco consumption. Given the complexity of the issue, none is likely to be forthcoming in the forseeable future." A 1994 US report, which focused on underage smoking, also acknowledged the "lack of definitive literature." None of the widely publicized studies that have appeared in recent years, including the much-hyped research on Joe Camel, actually measured the impact of advertising on a teenager's propensity to smoke.