Can Advertising Create Addiction Through A Habituation Effect?
Many people think that the key to putting an end to cigarettes in our society is getting Big Tobacco to admit that nicotine is addictive and regulating it like a drug. However, I think that is a very naive point of view. Even the FDA had to admit, at the height of its campaign against Big Tobacco, that the term “addictive” has no precise definition, and can be given meanings for different purposes. Is nicotine addictive? Different definitions provide different answers. One well known criterion is whether one needs a continuously increasing dosage of the substance – not necessarily the case with nicotine, as many smokers can stick with a pack-a-day habit. A better criterion, in my view, is whether the substance, in the environment in which it is used, produces unhealthful consequences that the individual with a desire to stop them, nevertheless cannot stop. Strikingly, advertising itself, under this definition may be able to produce the effect of addiction – especially if it is begun at
