STUDY FINDS TOBACCO ADS HAVE BIG IMPACT ON KIDS
By Adnews Staff
Minors are three times more responsive to cigarette ads than adults, according to a study led by professor Richard Pollay at the University of British Columbia. The study appears in the April issue of the Journal of Marketing in the U.S. Researchers going over U.S. data found that if a company spent 10% more on advertising, its market share rose 9% among teen smokers, compared with a 3% rise among adults. Of nine major cigarette brands studied in the report, three showed the greatest disparity between advertising's impact on minors and on adults: Marlboro, Camel and Newport. Marlboro was the heaviest advertiser of all the brands studied - it did 12.7% of the advertising - and it had the greatest market shares: 59.5% among minors and 21.9% among adults. Camel, which accounted for 4.9% of the advertising, had an 8.7% share of the kids' market and 3.7% of the adults'. Newport, with 4.7% of the advertising, had 11.1% of the market among minors and 3.8% among adults. The study did not address whether tobacco advertising increased the overall number of minors who start smoking; it just looked at shifting market shares.