Research
Objective: To examine the association between exposure to tobacco displays at the point of sale and teenage smoking and susceptibility to the uptake of smoking.
Design: The sample comprised a national cross-section of 14–15 year olds with two measures of exposure to tobacco displays at the point of sale and three outcome measures. The outcome measures were susceptibility to smoking initiation, experimenting with smoking or current smoking.
Results: Compared with visiting stores less often than weekly, a greater frequency of store visits was related to increased odds of being susceptible to smoking (daily visits, adjusted OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.6 to 2.2) and experimenting with smoking (daily visits, adjusted OR 2.7, 95% CI 2.4 to 3.1). The likelihood of being a current smoker increased with a greater frequency of store visits among students of medium and high socioeconomic status, but not among those of low socioeconomic status.
Conclusion: Although these findings are cross-sectional in nature, they are consistent with the notion that greater exposure to tobacco displays at the point of sale increases youth smoking, and suggest display bans are needed.
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Objective: To assess the influence of point-of-sale (POS) cigarette displays on unplanned purchases.
Methods: Intercept interviews were conducted with customers observed purchasing cigarettes from retail outlets featuring POS cigarette displays. Measures included intention to purchase cigarettes prior to entering the store, unprompted and prompted salience of POS tobacco displays, urge to buy cigarettes as a result of seeing the POS display, brand switching and support for a ban on POS cigarette displays.
Results: In total, 206 daily smokers aged 18-76 years (90 male, 116 female) were interviewed. Unplanned cigarette purchases were made by 22% of participants. POS displays influenced nearly four times as many unplanned purchases as planned purchases (47% vs 12%, p<0.01). Brand switching was reported among 5% of participants, half of whom were influenced by POS displays. Four times as many smokers were supportive of a ban on POS tobacco displays than unsupportive (49% vs 12%), and 28% agreed that such a ban would make it easier to quit.
Conclusions: POS tobacco displays act as a form of advertising even in the absence of advertising materials. They stimulate unplanned cigarette purchases, play an important role in brand selection and tempt smokers trying to quit. This justifies removing POS tobacco displays from line of sight-something that very few smokers in our sample would object to.
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Husten’s editorial on smoking cessation in young adults highlights the need for the public health community to support young adults’ quit attempts through environmental changes, including increasing tobacco prices, encouraging smoke-free public places, workplaces, and homes, and improving coverage of cessation interventions. One important initiative missing from this list is restricting tobacco promotions at the retail point-of-sale (POS). The tobacco industry spends more money on POS promotions than on all other forms of cigarette marketing combined. Tobacco promotions at retail outlets provide product cues to would-be starters and would-be quitters, and may present relapse challenges for the latter group. While restricting POS promotions may seem daunting given its pervasiveness, some jurisdictions have been successful in doing so.
Ontario, Canada’s largest province, has adopted a phased-in approach to restricting tobacco promotions at POS. "Enhancements" of cigarette powerwalls behind the cash counter, cigarette countertop displays, outdoor signs, and most indoor signs were prohibited in May 2006, and the visible display of tobacco products at POS will be completely banned as of May 2008.
In 2005, prior to POS tobacco promotion restrictions, we visited a random selection of 481 Ontario retail outlets to measure the extent of tobacco promotions. We found extensive tobacco promotions across the province, including countertop displays, large signs with cigarette packs attached, and sophisticated powerwalls with "enhanced" features, such as display panels, colored shelf liners, and colored shelf gliders.
We returned to a subset of these stores in 2006, 1 month prior to the implementation of the restrictions described above. Although these restrictions were not yet in force, 54% of stores were already complying with the regulations. Among noncompliant stores, only 22% had increased their promotions from the previous year. An increase in promotions was not significantly associated with store type, city size, city smoking prevalence, strength of clean air by-laws, store sales, neighborhood household income or education level, or proximity to a school.
Restrictions on POS tobacco promotions can elicit relatively high cooperation from both retailers and the tobacco industry, even prior to the actual implementation date. A survey conducted in the fall of 2006 found 89% of Ontario vendors compliant with all restrictions on POS promotions. Eliminating this ubiquitous form of advertising will reduce the impact of tobacco promotions on current, former, and potential smokers, including young adults, and will contribute to the comprehensive approach needed to support youth smoking cessation.
Objectives: The retail environment provides important opportunities for tobacco industry communication with current, former, and potential smokers. This study documented the extent of tobacco promotions at the retail point-of-sale and examined associations between the extent of tobacco promotions and relevant city and store characteristics.
Methods: In each of 20 Ontario cities, 24 establishments were randomly selected from lists of convenience stores, gas stations, and grocery stores. Trained observers captured the range, type and intensity of tobacco promotions from April to July 2005. The extent of tobacco promotions was described using weighted descriptive statistics. Weighted t-tests and ANOVAs, and hierarchical linear modeling, were used to examine the relationships between tobacco promotions and city and store characteristics.
Results: Extensive tobacco promotions were found in Ontario stores one year prior to the implementation of a partial ban on retail displays, particularly in chain convenience stores, gas station convenience stores and independent convenience stores. The multivariate hierarchical linear model confirmed differences in the extent of tobacco promotions by store type (p < 0.01); in addition, tobacco promotions were found to be higher among stores close to a school (p = 0.01) and in neighbourhoods with lower median household incomes (p < 0.01). Independent convenience stores with a greater number of employees had more tobacco promotions; however, the relationship was reversed for grocery stores.
Disussion: Tobacco promotions were extensive at the point-of-sale. Public health messages about the harms of tobacco use may be compromised by the pervasiveness of these promotions.
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Objectives: To examine correlates of perceived access to cigarettes at home, school, and the store among youth.
Methods: Virginia middle school youth were surveyed before beginning tobacco prevention programs. Multivariate analyses examined household smoking, peer smoking, and perceived community tobacco use for their relationship to perceived access at home, school, and the store. RESULTS: Perceived access at home was associated with parent, sibling, and friend smoking. Perceived access at school and stores was associated with perceived peer and community smoking.
Conclusions: Youth tobacco prevention programs should target the commercial and social sources of tobacco access to reduce experimentation, adoption, and addiction among youth.
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Tobacco promotion influences tobacco consumption. Traditional forms of tobacco promotion have been heavily restricted in response to the harmful effects of tobacco. Tobacco displays at the point of purchase are increasingly important as a means of communicating brand imagery for the tobacco industry, especially when advertising is restricted at these points. Previous research has demonstrated that children exposed to tobacco advertising at the point of purchase have inflated perceptions of availability, use and popularity of tobacco. Internationally, laws are being debated and implemented to prohibit or restrict the display of tobacco at the point of purchase or put tobacco out of sight. Such measures would reduce tobacco product exposure and, hence, tobacco marketing among youth and the community. In South Australia, a ban on all cigarette advertising at the point of purchase was introduced in 2005. This study was designed to assess community support for restrictions on cigarette displays and advertising at the point of purchase. A telephone survey was conducted with a random sample of 2026 South Australian adults (aged 18 years and over) in July 2005. Overall, 63% of the community approved of a hypothetical total ban on cigarette displays at the point of purchase, with over three-quarters believing this should happen in the next 12 months. A further 24% believed that cigarette displays should be restricted and 82% would approve of a ban on displays in stores that sell confectionary. Only 7% of adult smokers reported making their decision about the brand of cigarettes to buy at the point of purchase and 90% made their decision before they even entered the shop. The results strengthen arguments that cigarette displays are not necessary to maintain brand loyalty or to encourage brand switching of established smokers. Instead, the results make arguments more credible that cigarette displays normalize and promote smoking among young people and may also promote unplanned purchase or increased consumption among less frequent smokers or former smokers. Placing cigarettes out of sight would be unlikely to impact on brand choice for most smokers, who have already made up their mind before they enter the store.
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This study examined the quantity (density) and location (proximity) of tobacco outlets and retail cigarette advertising in high school neighborhoods and their association with school smoking prevalence. Results indicated that the prevalence of current smoking was 3.2 percentage points higher at schools in neighborhoods with the highest tobacco outlet density (>5 outlets) than in neighborhoods without any tobacco outlets. The density of retail cigarette advertising in school neighborhoods was similarly associated with high school smoking prevalence. However, neither the presence of a tobacco outlet within 1000 ft of a high school nor the distance to the nearest tobacco outlet from school was associated with smoking prevalence. Researchers concluded that policy efforts to reduce adolescent smoking should aim to reduce the density of tobacco outlets and retail cigarette advertising in school neighborhoods. This may be achieved through local zoning ordinances, including limiting the proximity of tobacco outlets to schools.
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Researchers note that in the USA tobacco companies spend more of their marketing dollars in stores than in any other venue. In 2005, they spent 88% of a total of $13.1 billion to advertise and promote product sales in stores. The purposes of this study was to identify how the amount and types of cigarette advertising and sales promotions have changed in stores in California between 2002 and 2005, and to assess neighbourhood influences on cigarette marketing in stores. Results show that the mean number of cigarette advertisements per store increased over time from 22.7 to 24.9. The percentage of stores with at least one advert for a sales promotion increased from 68% to 80%. The amount of advertising and proportion of stores with sales promotions increased more rapidly in stores situated in neighbourhoods with a higher proportion of African–Americans. The results indicate increasing use of stores to market and promote cigarette sales. Further, these increases are disproportionately accelerating in neighbourhoods with more African–Americans. Legislative strategies should be pursued to control the marketing of tobacco products and promotional strategies used to reduce prices in stores.
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Research from the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at the University of Toronto shows that consumers have been bombarded by extensive tobacco promotion at point of sale. Places where tobacco is sold have become important environments for the tobacco industry to communicate with current, former and potential smokers through large tobacco product displays, countertop displays and signs advertising tobacco. The research conducted by Joanna Cohen, a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and principal investigator with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, involved an examination of more than 480 establishments including convenience stores, gas stations and grocery stores in 20 Ontario cities. "The province's upcoming ban on displaying tobacco products couldn't come sooner," said Cohen. "Our research shows tobacco promotions were extensive in stores across Ontario. The vast majority of chain convenience stores had large displays of cigarettes with shelf gliders (98%), shelf liners (97%) and a top display panel (89%) colour-coded to complement various cigarette brands, and 89 per cent had tobacco products placed within one foot of candy." The team headed by Cohen, which also included researchers from University of Regina and University of Western Ontario, found that tobacco promotions were higher among stores close to a school and in neighbourhoods with lower median household incomes. The study findings are published in the current edition of the Canadian Journal of Public Health. Funding for this project was provided by a grant from the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative.
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1. The attitudes and knowledge of retail sector staff to selling tobacco products and display bans
The study gives an indication of the range of opinions about tobacco product retail display. The findings, if replicated more widely, suggest that display bans will attract some support in the sector and will not be universally opposed by retailers, particularly if the ban is justified on health grounds, and in relation to the protection of children from smoking. In addition, it will be important to develop policy which does not disadvantage some retail outlets and which is seen to be fair and equitable across the sector.
2. Evidence on the impact of display bans internationally
Internationally, restrictions on other forms of tobacco marketing have increased the importance of the retail setting for recruiting and keeping tobacco customers. This has resulted in greater investment by tobacco companies in display space and equipment, in staff to maintain relationships with retailers, and in research on the effective use of retail marketing. There is some evidence of increasing ties at an international level between tobacco companies and large retailing organisations (supermarkets and oil companies).
3. How do tobacco retail displays affect ex-smokers and lapsed quitters?
This exploratory study suggests that retail tobacco displays do undermine quit attempts and participants believed these displays also attracted young people to develop a smoking addiction. Further work, conducted on a larger scale, could quantify these preliminary findings.
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Aims: To assess the extent to which point-of purchase (POP) cigarette displays stimulate impulse purchases.
Design: Telephone-administered population survey. Setting Victoria, Australia. Participants A total of 2996 adults, among whom 526 smoked factory-made cigarettes and 67 were recent quitters (quit in the past 12 months).
Measurements: Reported cigarette purchase behaviour; perceived effect on smoking of removing cigarettes from view in retail outlets; reported urges to buy cigarettes as a result of seeing the cigarette display.
Findings: When shopping for items other than cigarettes, 25.2% of smokers purchased cigarettes at least sometimes on impulse as a result of seeing the cigarette display. Thirty-eight per cent of smokers who had tried to quit in the past 12 months and 33.9% of recent quitters experienced an urge to buy cigarettes as a result of seeing the retail cigarette display. One in five smokers trying to quit and one in eight recent quitters avoided stores where they usually bought cigarettes in case they might be tempted to purchase them. Many smokers (31.4%) thought the removal of cigarette displays from stores would make it easier for them to quit.
Conclusions: POP cigarette displays act as cues to smoke, even among those not explicitly intending to buy cigarettes, and those trying to avoid smoking. Effective POP marketing restrictions should encompass cigarette displays.
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NIGEL GRAY. (2008) [Commentary] POWERWALLS PREY ON THE SUSCEPTIBLE. Addiction 103:2, 329–330
In this paper Nigel Gray comments on research on tobacco displays by Wakefield et al. He notes that the need to remove unnecessary cues to smoke is a clear message from Wakefield's research. The conclusion from the work is that international policy that proposes outlawing all forms of tobacco promotion, as laid out in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), should be taken to what might once have been categorized as extremes. Tobacco sales should be allowed, but supplies should be under the counter, outlets minimized and plain generic packaging should replace trademarks.
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This study, the first to examine the differential impact of objectively collected measures of cigarette marketing strategies on smoking uptake, shows that different marketing strategies have differential effects on progression from initiation and experimentation to regular smoking. Point-of-sale advertising is associated with encouraging youth to try smoking, whereas promotions influence youth already experimenting to progress to regular smokers. Current established smokers were most influenced by promotions. Eighth graders were more influenced than older youth by all advertising methods. Price-based promotions are particularly appealing to young, price-sensitive smokers and may cancel out some of the effects of higher cigarette prices. These results suggest that, although the MSA restricted some of the industry's promotional and advertising activities, the increase in retail advertising is offsetting some of the MSA's benefits in reducing marketing. The authors suggest that restricting point-of-sale advertising and price-based promotions will help prevent youth from moving along the uptake continuum toward regular smoking.
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A NZ survey show that most stores and retail outlets sell tobacco in breach of current point-of-sale legislation, particularly diaries and convenience stores in areas with a higher proportion of children. This survey, carried out by by medical students from Otago University’s Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences and funded by the Cancer Society of New Zealand, is the first of its kind. It surveyed almost 300 stores and retail outlets in the greater Wellington region. Dairies (76%) and convenience stores (82%) were the most likely to break at least one or more of the regulations for retail tobacco displays. The three most common violations were having tobacco products closer than one metre to children’s products such as sweets (24% of all stores), failing to display a ‘Smoking Kills’ sign within 2 metres of the display (30%), and having tobacco displays which were visible from outside the shop (25%). Over half (55%) of dairies and convenience stores in the areas with the highest proportion of children displayed cigarettes within a metre of children’s products. The researchers argued that the current point of sale regulations are failing to protect children from tobacco marketing, and that a complete ban on point-of-sale display of tobacco is needed.
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A literature review on the tobacco displays, including how the industry makes the most of the retail environment, why retail displays are advertising, an outline of the current regulatiosn around tobacco displays in New Zealand, international precedent for bannign retail displays and responses to tobacco industry arguments against banngin displays.
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As Australian cigarette marketing was increasingly restricted, the retail environment became the primary communication vehicle for building cigarette brands. When retail marketing was restricted, the industry conceded only incrementally and under duress, and at times continues to break the law. The tobacco industry targets retailers via trade promotional expenditure, financial and practical assistance with point of sale marketing, alliance building, brand advertising, and distribution. Cigarette brand advertising in retail magazines are designed to build brand identities. Philip Morris and British American Tobacco are now competing to control distribution of all products to retailers, placing themselves at the heart of retail business.
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This study examines retail point-of-purchase promotion through an analysis of tobacco industry documents. Industry documents reveal that the tobacco industry’s use of point-of-purchase promotion has increased as a response to industry fears about the potential for restrictions on traditional advertising and promotional channels. A central focus of tobacco companies for the past three decades has been to gain retailer loyalty and monopolise retail display space, in order to build brand identity. Intense competition has emerged as tobacco companies attempt to gain market leadership in the point-of-purchase environment. The proliferation of point-of-purchase materials creates a friendly familiarity for tobacco in the retail context. Reducing or eliminating point-of-sale promotion and cigarette displays would help to remove temptation from underage youth and would-be quitters.
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Banning the display of tobacco products at point of sale is an important international tobacco control policy frontier, with Thailand joining Saskatchewan in implementing bans on tobacco displays. As Australian governments contemplate bans on the display of tobacco products at retail outlets, new industry documents have emerged that emphasise the importance of the retail environment to support sophisticated tobacco industry point of sale marketing. The material prepared for the tobacco retailing industry in Australia confirms that bans on the display of tobacco products are likely to reduce tobacco sales. The importance of tobacco displays to the tobacco industry has previously been highlighted in the United States where one study demonstrated that school students who reported at least weekly visits to convenience stores were more likely to have tried smoking, while another study found that stores popular among adolescents contained twice as much shelf space devoted to the three brands most popular with American adolescents (Marlboro, Camel and Newport), than other stores.
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By creating a sense of familiarity with tobacco, cigarette advertising and bold packaging displays in stores where children often visit may help to pre-dispose them to smoking. A total of 605 ninth-grade students were randomly allocated to view a photograph of a typical convenience store point-of-sale which had been digitally manipulated to show either cigarette advertising and pack displays, pack displays only or no cigarettes. Students then completed a self-administered questionnaire. Compared with those who viewed the no cigarettes, students either in the display only condition or cigarette advertising condition perceived it would be easier to purchase tobacco from these stores. Those who saw the cigarette advertising perceived it would be less likely they would be asked for proof of age, and tended to think a greater number of stores would sell cigarettes to them, compared with respondents who saw no tobacco products. Respondents in the display only condition tended to recall displayed cigarette brands more often than respondents who saw no cigarettes. Cigarette advertising similarly influenced students, and tended to weaken students' resolve not to smoke in future. Retail tobacco advertising as well as cigarette pack displays may have adverse influences on youth, suggesting that tighter tobacco marketing restrictions are needed.
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Tobacco firms face an increasingly stringent regulatory environment. Despite having fewer viable options in the promotional mix, industry promotional spending has persisted, reaching record levels. In the USA, $11.22 billion was spent on tobacco promotion during 2001.1 Once one form of promotion is banned, tobacco firms utilise other marketing strategies to continue communicating brand imagery. Radio and television advertising was no longer acceptable for cigarettes in New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia, commencing in 1963, 1965, 1971, 1972, and 1976, respectively. Consequently, the tobacco industry shifted their promotional spending largely toward the print media. Individual tobacco companies also turned to sponsoring broadcast sports events to compensate for lost broadcast advertising exposure. In Canada, with the implementation of the Tobacco Products Control Act that stipulated a ban on tobacco product advertising, expenditures on sponsorship increased considerably during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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Although numerous studies describe the quantity and nature of tobacco marketing in stores, fewer studies examine the industry’s attempts to reach youth at the point of sale. This study examines whether cigarette marketing is more prevalent in stores where adolescents shop frequently. The study found that compared to other stores in the same community, stores where adolescents shopped frequently contained almost three times more marketing materials for Marlboro, Camel, and Newport, and significantly more shelf space devoted to these brands. The authors concluded that regardless of whether tobacco companies intentionally target youth at the point of sale, these findings underscore the importance of strategies to reduce the quantity and impact of cigarette marketing materials in this venue.
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This study aimed to describe the sources of cigarettes for under-age youth who had smoked in the previous month, the frequency of their purchases and the revenue generated. Results found that over one-third of the students who smoked had purchased tobacco products from commercial sources in the month before the survey; most frequently from dairies and service stations. For more than one-third of smokers (35.7%), being younger than 18 years was not a barrier to purchasing tobacco products. During 2002, the retail value of tobacco sales to those 14–16 years, alone, was estimated to be in excess of $18 million, with around $12.5 million of this going to the Government as taxes. Researchers concluded that policies that restrict youth access to tobacco products can only be effective if they are rigorously enforced. Many young New Zealanders have no difficulty in purchasing tobacco products, thereby generating significant revenue. Total sales to all smokers under 18 years would be likely to exceed of $24 million, with around $17 million in taxes. Current legislation and enforcement is not a sufficient deterrent to ensure retailer compliance with age restrictions. It would be appropriate to use at least some of the revenue from under-age sales to fund health promotion programmes to reduce tobacco smoking and other health-compromising behaviours among youth. Nationally collated data on monitoring visits, prosecutions, and fines for under-age sales are currently not readily available, thereby limiting opportunities for evaluation.
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The objective of this survey was to examine the extent and types of cigarette advertising materials in stores and to assess tobacco company compliance with the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). Results found that California retail outlets featured 17.2 (SD 16.1) tobacco advertising materials on average, and 94% of stores featured at least some advertising. About 85% of these were within 4 feet (1.3 m) of the counter. About 50% of the stores had ads at or below 3 feet, and 23% had cigarette product displays next to candy. In violation of the MSA, 3% of stores featured signs with cartoons and 11% had large exterior signs. Researchers concluded that tobacco companies are aggressively using stores to market cigarettes. Moreover, the spirit of the MSA to protect children from cigarette advertising has not been realised. Future studies should monitor industry use of this venue and assess the impact of exposure to cigarette advertising materials in stores on adult smokers and youth.
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Point-of-sale activity is important enough to get the attention of the senior management of transnational firms and to be the subject of sophisticated research aimed to realise ‘‘intrusive visibility’’ better through creative design, command attention and convey brand imagery. The result of this is the promotional ‘‘positioning’’ of products, and the creation of both friendly familiarity and perceived popularity. The intended results include increased sales of cigarettes as a product or ‘‘category growth’’.
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This research examined whether retail tobacco outlet density was related to youth cigarette smoking after control for a diverse range of neighborhood characteristics. Data were gathered from 2116 respondents (aged 11 to 23 years) residing in 178 census tracts in Chicago, Ill. Propensity score stratification methods for continuous exposures were used to adjust for potentially confounding neighborhood characteristics, thus strengthening causal inferences.
The research found that retail tobacco outlets were disproportionately located in neighborhoods characterized by social and economic disadvantage. In a model that excluded neighborhood confounders, a marginally significant effect was found. Youths in areas at the highest 75th percentile in retail tobacco outlet density were 13% more likely (odds ratio [OR]=1.13; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.99, 1.28) to have smoked in the past month compared with those living at the lowest 25th percentile. However, the relation became stronger and significant (OR=0.21; 95% CI=1.04, 1.41) after introduction of tract-level confounders and was statistically significant in the propensity score–adjusted model (OR = 1.20; 95% CI = 1.001, 1.44). Results did not differ significantly between minors and those legally permitted to smoke.
Researchers concluded that reductions in retail tobacco outlet density may reduce rates of youth smoking.
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Point-of-purchase displays are advertising and should be recognized as advertising. Moreover, point-of-purchase tobacco displays, or tobacco “power walls,” arguably are and may have been for many years the most important advertising medium available to the tobacco industry.
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The objective of this research was to describe the types of tobacco company incentive programmes offered to retailers, how these programmes impact the store environments, and possible visual indicators of retailer participation in incentive programmes. Research results found that the retailers provided insights into how tobacco companies convey promotional allowances and special offers to them and how these incentives shape the retail environment. Retailers noted that tobacco companies exert substantial control over their stores by requiring placement of products in the most visible locations, and of specific amounts and types of advertising in prime locations in the store. Retailers also described how tobacco companies reduce prices by offering them volume based discounts, "buy two, get one free" specials, and "buying down" the price of existing product. Researchers concluded that tobacco companies are concentrating their marketing dollars at the point-of-sale to the extent that the store is their primary communication channel with customers. As a result, all shoppers regardless of age or smoking status are exposed to pro-smoking messages. Given the financial resources spent by tobacco companies in stores, this venue warrants closer scrutiny by researchers and tobacco control advocates.
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A survey of 2125 middle-school students in central California examined adolescents’ exposure to tobacco marketing in stores and its association with self-reported smoking. Twothirds of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students reported at least weekly visits to small grocery, convenience, or liquor stores. Such visits were associated with a 50% increase in the odds of ever smoking, even after control for social influences to smoke. Youth smoking rates may benefit from efforts to reduce adolescents’ exposure to tobacco marketing in stores.
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This research has found that careful and extensive research has been employed in all stages of the process of conceiving, developing, refining, and deploying cigarette advertising. Two segments commanding much management attention are “starters” and “concerned smokers”. To recruit starters, brand images communicate independence, freedom and (sometimes) peer acceptance. These advertising images portray smokers as attractive and autonomous, accepted and admired, athletic and at home in nature. For “lighter” brands reassuring health concerned smokers, lest they quit, advertisements provide imagery conveying a sense of well being, harmony with nature, and a consumer’s self image as intelligent. Conclusions—The industry’s steadfast assertions that its advertising influences only brand loyalty and switching in both its intent and effect is directly contradicted by their internal documents and proven false. So too is the justification of cigarette advertising as a medium creating better informed consumers, since visual imagery, not information, is the means of advertising influence.
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This study examined among youth the extent of their perceived exposure to cigarette marketing and the relationship of their perceptions to their smoking behavior. The study found that eighty-eight percent of these 13-year-olds reported exposure to cigarette marketing: the majority often saw ads in magazines, on billboards, and at stores and events, and one quarter owned cigarette promotional items. After social influences to smoke were controlled for, exposure to cigarette marketing was related to self-reported smoking behavior. Likelihood of experimenting with smoking was 2.2 times greater among those who owned promotional items and 2.8 times greater among those who had received mail from a tobacco company. Seeing cigarette advertisements in magazines increased this likelihood by 21%, and seeing tobacco marketing in stores increased it by 38%. The report concluded that youth are daily and widely exposed to tobacco industry marketing efforts; this exposure is related to smoking behavior. Research recommended more effective regulation.
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Point of Purchase (PoP) promotional and advertising activities are a sophisticated tobacco marketing strategy. This study describes tobacco PoP activities in school neighbourhoods and compares PoP activities in retail stores between schools with high and low smoking prevalence. The paper concludes that higher levels of PoP activities in stores located in the school neighbourhood are related to school smoking prevalence. Schools with low smoking prevalence had more stores that posted government health warning signs and higher cigarette prices. Legislation regulating PoP activities and health warnings in school neighbourhoods should be considered.