Undoing an epidemiological paradox: the tobacco industry's targeting of US Immigrants.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to ascertain whether the tobacco industry has conceptualized the US immigrant population as a separate market.


METHODS
We conducted a content analysis of major tobacco industry documents.


RESULTS
The tobacco industry has engaged in 3 distinct marketing strategies aimed at US immigrants: geographically based marketing directed toward immigrant communities, segmentation based on immigrants' assimilation status, and coordinated marketing focusing on US immigrant groups and their countries of origin.


CONCLUSIONS
Public health researchers should investigate further the tobacco industry's characterization of the assimilated and non-assimilated immigrant markets, and its specific strategies for targeting these groups, in order to develop informed national and international tobacco control countermarketing strategies designed to protect immigrant populations and their countries of origin.
Acevedo-Garcia
Dolores
D
Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. dacevedo@hsph.harvard.edu
Barbeau
Elizabeth
E
Bishop
Jennifer Anne
JA
Pan
Jocelyn
J
Emmons
Karen M
KM
D000069:Acculturation; D001208:Asia / Q000208:ethnology; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D006801:Humans; D007843:Latin America / Q000208:ethnology; D040541:Marketing; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology*; D019460:Tobacco Industry; D014481:United States