Never gonna give you up: smoking: brand affinity and youth culture in Britain 1975-2000

Revell, Kevin (2025) Never gonna give you up: smoking: brand affinity and youth culture in Britain 1975-2000. Masters thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis considers factors impacting the cigarette smoking habits of young adults in Britain between 1975 and 2000. Specifically it covers the aspects of starting, switching brands and stopping smoking, and as such, the ways in which brand affinity changed during this time. It assesses marketing material and outputs alongside internal creative briefs and documentation from marketing agencies and tobacco companies. It uses an oral history approach to gather memories of smokers during this time, to understand the economic, social, cultural, political, geographical and class factors that impacted their smoking decisions.

During 1975-2000 the disruption and noise interference of subcultures ebbed and flowed, whilst its members and affiliates made decisions on smoking influenced by peers; a politically driven economic and social environment; and the changing face of marketing. All of this was in the context of a government that was anxious not to be the nanny state, and yet had a moral obligation to discourage smoking.

Whilst there are a few academic articles on the effectiveness of marketing/branding on youth smoking habits, and on the impact of state intervention to young people, there seem to be very little consideration of smoking from the young consumer’s perspective of identity or brand affinity. This thesis aims to address that gap, partly through an analysis of oral history, and reaches a number of distinct conclusions around the intersection of marketing, cigarette smoking, and youth culture.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	26 Nov 2025 13:24
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2025 13:24
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/101108
DOI:

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