Cancer Institute Chief Says Ads Target Youth

If the tobacco industry really wants to prevent children and teen-agers from smoking, it would stop advertising to them, argues Dr. Samuel Broder, director of the National Cancer Institute and one of the highest-ranking U.S. health officials.

In an editorial in last week’s Journal of the American Medical Assn., Broder throws the latest punch in an ongoing war between health officials and tobacco executives about whether cigarette advertising encourages children to smoke.

The debate’s focus is a new generation of cartoon advertisements promoting Camel and Kool cigarettes. Studies published earlier this year in JAMA showed a link among youth between the cartoons and the use of Camels, made by the R.J. Reynolds Co.

“Despite mounting evidence, industry executives persist in arguing that the themes and images used to promote their deadly product somehow--miraculously it would seem--only reach ‘adults,’ and that advertising targeted to an 18-year-old (the age of legal purchase in most states) will somehow not affect younger teens or preteens,” Broder says.

Industry officials deny the advertisements appeal to youths. But, Broder points out, R.J. Reynolds Co.’s new tobacco-control educational program for youth also uses the cartoon figures.

In a Wall Street Journal story, Reynolds officials say the educational campaign features cartoons because marketing tests show children will relate to cartoons better than photographs.