Most-Advertised Cigarettes Are Teens’ Choice, Study Says

The three cigarette brands that do the most advertising--Marlboro, Camel and Newport--are also the most popular with teen-agers who smoke, federal health officials reported Thursday.

More than 80% of the 12- to 18-year-old smokers surveyed said they buy one of the three top advertised brands, reports the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control’s Office on Smoking and Health. Philip Morris spent $85 million to advertise Marlboro domestically in 1990.

“If we know the types of brands that teens prefer, it can also tell us about the images they go for,” said Gary Giovino, chief of the division’s epidemiology branch. The CDC polled more than 16,000 youths in two surveys, one in 1989 and one in 1990.

Tobacco company officials, however, disagreed with the study’s conclusions.

“Blaming Philip Morris advertising for minors illegally purchasing cigarettes is like blaming General Motors for minors stealing Corvettes,” said Karen Daragan, a spokeswoman for Philip Morris.

Surveys by tobacco giant R. J. Reynolds, which makes the Camel brand, indicate that peer pressure--not advertising--influences teen smoking habits, company spokeswoman Maura Payne said.

Federal officials are putting their anti-smoking efforts into high gear as more consumers turn away from smoking. The latest study comes just three days after U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello asked the maker of Camel cigarettes to pull ads that she says attract children. Such government efforts have proven politically popular.

Also on Thursday, the San Francisco-based anti-smoking group Citizens for a Tobacco-Free Society petitioned the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to require newspapers and magazines that run tobacco ads to give equal ad space to anti-smoking groups.