Teens More Apt Than Adults to Heed Cigarette Ads, Study Finds

A new salvo was fired Wednesday in the campaign against the tobacco industry, as anti-smoking advocates unveiled a study reporting that underage smokers are three times as likely as adults to be influenced by cigarette advertising.

The study does not prove that advertising causes teenagers to start smoking--it did not address that question, according to its lead author, Richard Pollay, a marketing professor at the University of British Columbia.

But it concludes that 12- to 18-year-olds who already smoke are strongly affected by advertising in choosing cigarette brands--a finding that tobacco critics are using to debunk the industry’s claim that it only targets adults.

The study comes at a time when the Food and Drug Administration is considering strict regulations on cigarette advertising as a way to curb teen smoking.

A spokesman for the Tobacco Institute--which recently attacked the proposed stricter rules with its own study claiming that 92,000 jobs would be lost if the FDA plan takes effect--dismissed Wednesday’s event as “a great deal of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

Spokesman Walker Merryman said a previous study “flatly contradicted” Pollay’s report.

Pollay has researched cigarette advertising for the last decade and has testified for plaintiffs in several lawsuits against the tobacco industry. He said he had received no funding for his work.

Whether advertising plays a role in teenage smoking patterns has been intensely debated for at least two decades. Public health experts say that most smokers begin before they are 18 and that the average age at which children first experiment with cigarettes is 14 or 15.

The tobacco industry maintains that peer pressure and adolescent rebellion are the most important factors in these trends.

Pollay found that the three brands most frequently criticized for using campaigns that appeal to children--Marlboro, for its alluring Marlboro cowboys; Camel, for its controversial Joe Camel cartoon character; and Newport, for its fresh, clean, healthy images--have a market share among youth that is disproportionate to the amount of money spent on advertising.