The questions about merchandise were an attempt to track changing trends in tobacco marketing. As restrictions on advertising have tightened over the years, the tobacco industry has shifted tactics for spending its $6-billion per year (1993 figure) U.S. advertising and promotion budget. In 1993, the industry spent $3.4 billion on coupons, specialty, and value-added items, a category which includes merchandise. Ad expenditures, in fact, have been falling in recent years, as you'll see from this graph.
All told, 211 of the under-18 respondents in the California survey, even though they were too young to buy cigarettes, had received tobacco merchandise. Forty two percent of the stuff promoted Camel, 17 percent Marlboro, and 10 percent smokeless tobacco (snuff or chewing tobacco).
© Bonnie Vierthaler, BADvertising.
Sixty percent of the never-smokers could name a favorite cigarette advertisement. Camel was most commonly named, although Marlboro gained popularity among older groups of children. Among the 40 percent of respondents who expressed a brand preference for cigarettes they would smoke, Marlboro was most popular.
Blacks and whites did not significantly differ in susceptibility. However, white, Hispanic adolescents were 70 percent more likely to be susceptible than non-Hispanic whites. And youths who rated their school performance as "average" or "below average" were significantly more susceptible than those who rated their own performance "significantly above average."
What's it mean?
Noting that nearly two-thirds of 12- and 13-year-olds scored 2 or higher on the receptivity scale, the researchers argued that "adolescent never smokers appeared to be receptive to tobacco marketing at an early age."
"We've demonstrated that the tobacco industry is very effective with 12- and 13-year-olds," Pierce explains. Indeed, he points out, further studies of the same group, done in the three years since the data were first collected, reinforce the finding of susceptibility to tobacco advertising.
What are the implications of this study for controlling tobacco advertising? "If we are going to make a rule that you can't sell to those under 18," Pierce adds, "we should concentrate on not building demand in that group."
Here are some of the ways nicotine addiction might influence the war on smoking.
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