Youth and Marketing
In Re Mike Moore, Attorney General Ex Rel, State of Mississippi Tobacco Litigation, Plaintiff, vs. American Tobacco Company, et al., Defendants. Deposition of: Richard J. Semenik
Abstract
Deposition of Richard J. Semenik, concerning consumer decision-makers and behavior. Reviews his background and consulting experience, as well as his work on adolescents and marketing. States he feels many factors enter decisions regarding cigarettes and smoking, including peers, family, friends, school, religion, etc., but that advertising has no effect. States advertising exists to influence brand selection. Expresses view that cigarettes ads are not aimed at youth. Includes legal abstract of this deposition.
Fields
- Notes
Original document code was 378.
- Company
- Non-Tobacco Company
- Minor Subject
- Advertising and Marketing -target market --youth (<18 years old)
- Brand -image
- Brand -selection
- Smoking -incidence
- Surgeon General -report
- Tobacco Industry
- Tobacco Usage Behavior -influence of advertising
- Tobacco Usage Behavior -peer influence
- Youth (<18 years old) -smoking
- Brand -image
- Marketing Type
- PrintAd
- RadioAd
- TVAd
- RadioAd
- Author
- Semenik, Richard J
- Major Subject
- Advertising and Marketing
- Tobacco Industry
- Brand
- Marlboro (PM)
Document Images
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case, including internal company documents of any
defendant in this case." Are there any documents
that fall under paragraph 7 that have been produced
or should be produced to me?
A No. "
Q Have you reviewed any internal company
documents in this case or in any other case?
A No.
Q Have you read any deposition testimony of
any other expert witnesses in this case?
A Expert witnesses for the plaintiff, yes.
Q And who would that be?
A Martin Goldbergand Dean Krugman.
Q You said that you had a conversation with
David Goff several weeks ago. What was the purpose
of that communication?
A I wanted to know if he had ~vailable
copies of articles from the J~ck~on Clarion Ledger.
were you asked to review the depositions
of Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Krugman by the defendants in
this case?
A Pardon me?
Q" were you asked to review the depositions
of Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Krugman by the defendants.in
this case in preparation for your testimony?
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A
Q so
of what they
plaintiffs?
A Yes.
Vita.
Yes.
you-just basically made yourself
intended to testify on behalf of
aware
the
And I've had premarked as Exhibit 2 your
I'll ask you to take a look at that. It's
kind of a crooked copy, ~orry, and just make sure
it's complete and current.
A (Reviewing document.) The only thing not
listed is, and it's a minor item, on page 2-- excuse
me, page 3, it doesn't show my-- the courses I
taught autumn quarter 1996, which would have been
last quarter, or the courses I'm finishing up now~
is our winter quarter. So it's.page 3 of the
as the
which
Vita, but that's-- they're exactly the same
ones listed for autumn of '95.
Q Okay. Did you go directly from high
school to undergraduate?
A Yes.
Q And I see from your work
experience on page 2 you've been with
since you received your Ph.D.;
That is correct.
of Utah
correct?
A
history
the University
is that
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Q Are you a tenured profess.or?
A Yes.
When did you receive your tenure?
A 1981.
So you've never had any other work
experience other than in the academic field
being an expert witness?
A Yes. Or consulting preparations.
Q What type of consulting do you do?
A Most of my consulting has to do with
and
strategy, communications programs for
industries.
a list, I know it won't be
companies you've consulted
advertising
different clients, different
Q Can you give me
a11 inclusive, of several
with over the years?
A Yes. One would be about American .
Investment Bank, which is a subsidiary of Leucadia
National Corporation in New York; ~IBM, which has a
local sales and marketing office here in Salt Lake
City; AT&T, which also had a Salt Lake City Office,
the Jerry Seiner Group which is a large mega dealer,
automobile dealership here; several small firms,
Zion Laser Technology, which has patented laser
technology for teet-h whitening processes. The ~
resort group which manages condominiums for• absentee
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owners in Park City, Deer Valley, Hawaii, Sun
Valley. Those are the ones t.hat come to mind at the
moment.
Q Do you ever do ~ny consdlting work with
advertising agencies?
• A Yes, I do.
Q What is your involvement in that type of
consulting?
A Typically the agency work relates to ~
discussing with the agency and the client how the
creative execution can reflect th~ client's desired
marketing strategies.
Q
consulted
A
which is
which is
I have
And-what
with?
I have
here in Salt
also in Salt
advertising agencies have you
consulted
Lake
Lake
had discussions with all those
Do you consider yourself an
marketing?
A Yes.
Q Do you consider yourself a~
advertising?
A Yes..
Do you consider yourself an
with Dunn Communications,
City; Harris & Love,
City, and Snedeker Group,
organizations.
expert in
expert in
expert in
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communications?
A Yes.
Q Mass communications?
A Mass communications and marketing
communications which focuses more on the firm's
decision-making,
of mass
A
individual communications.
Q So when you stated previously that
been qualified as an expert in consumer
does that fall under the
communication?
Consumer decisiqn-making would fall under
consumer behavior.
yourself also an
you've
auspices
the general area referred to as
Q So you would consider
expert in consumer behavior?
A Yes.
Q Of marketing, advertising, consumer
behavior, which have you qualified in court as an
m~rketing and consumer
communications. Those have been
prior cases.
consider yourself an expert in
Sociology?
expert before?
A Advertising,
behavior and mass
all referenced in
Q DO you
psychology?
A No.
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A
No.
Epidemiology?
NO.
Statistics?
I have substantial
would not offer myself
training
but as an
Q Would that training fall
category of behavioral statistics?
A I'm not sure what you mean by
you could rephrase that I might clarify.
Q Or by saying you've had training
statistics, do you just know how to read
studies?
in statistics,
expert.
under the
that. If
in
the journ~l
A My training in my Ph.D. program a~lowed me
to conduct studies and to read the journal studies.
Q I'm looking at your publications which
includes books, journal publications, conference
proceedings. Have you ever done any work that was
specific to adolescents, and I mean in terms of
marketing, advertising, communications?
A Let me refresh my memory to see if any of
my respondents were adolescents. Yes.
Q Could you point that out to me?
A Yes. -The arts marketing research stream
represented by, under Journal Publications, the
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third article, "The
Consumption and the
with Gary Bamossy. ~
Experiential
Shaping of a
Gary Bamossy
Nature Of
'New Aesthetic',"
was a doctoral
student. That study focused on adolescents.
Q And what was the nature of that study?
A The nature of that study was to identify
how adolescents
the marketplace
symphony.
Are
MR.
publications?
Q
Conference
MR.
Proceedings,
came to view artistic offerings
like theatre, dance, opera,
there any others?
HELMS: Are.you just referring to
(BY MS. COLEY) Yes. Which includes
Proceedings and Research.
HELMS: Publications, Conference
Research, pretty mu~h everything.
in
his
THE WITNESS: Right. There"s a study on
page-- well, study may be not .thi correct word-- but
on page 7 there's an article titled "An
Anthropological Perspective on Consumer Research
Issues."
Q (BY MS. COLEY) And how did that include
adolescents?
• A That was written with an anthropologist,
Dennis Heskel,• and the concept of that study was
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that marketers can
behavior by studying
do in terms of their
and production.
And so it
learn much about consumer
people the way anthropologists
household domestic consumptio~
included
th~ whole
family with a
significant emphasis on children as part of the
consumption decision-making process that households
necessarily have to go through. But it was
conceptual. We did not ask people questions, we did
not generate data. So in that sense study would not
be exactly right, but it is an article that
considered that issue. Those would be the articles
that included adolescents.
Q On pagell of your Vita you list your
professional service which includes a reviewer of
various publications. .What is the difference
between a reviewer and being on the editorial board?
A The editorial board is a small group,
typically from six to 12 individuals, who have been
asked to give advice to the editor of the journal
regarding editorial policy and philosophical
direction of the journal. So it would be very much
like
a board of directors in a corporation.
Q And what do you do as a reviewer?
A As a reviewer, the editor sends you
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articles
quality of the
publication.
Q And what
A An ad hoc
asked to do reviews
individual who is not
and asks you to glve your opinion about
article and its worthiness for
is an ad hoc
reviewer is a
by the editor,
formally on
review board.
Q And you're
of the Journal of Health
A Yes, I am.
Q What is
journal?
A I have not reviewed
not want to say what it is.
What generally does
area?
have
to the
Q
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that?
A
reviewer?
reviewer that's
but is an
the editorial
on the editorial review board
Care Marketi~q?
the philosophical purpose of that
that lately so I would
it deal with, what
A The articles I have been. asked to review
to do with marketing technology as it's applied
health care industry.
Next I had marked as
Statement
Exhibit
in this case. Do you
Did you prepare this expert
3 your Rule
recognize
statement?
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A I prepared this statement in conjunction
with the attorneys in the case.
Q When did you start working
preparation of this statement?
A January.
Q '96 or '97?
A No, that couldn't be right.
March. It would have been November
want to go through this
Q I
and ask you some
testify about.
on the
This is only
or December '96.
expert statement
questions about what it says you'll
It says in paragraph 2 that you will
general
testify about universally accepted models of
consumer dec£sion-making. Are you going to talk
about several different models or is there one
basic model that you have in mind?
with
A Well, in terms of testifying, I'll testify
respect to the questions that are asked.
Q I understand that.
MR. HELMS: Jennifer, are you just asking
whether, in his mind there's more than ode model?
Q (BY MS. COLEY) Yes.
A There are many models of ~he consumer
decision-making.
Q Is there one generally accepted model that
would apply best t.o consumer decisions about smoking
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