Tobacco Advertising and YOU

Each year, tobacco companies spend BILLIONS of dollars on marketing promotions that young people often find appealing. The Surgeon General has even said that tobacco advertising does "foster the uptake of smoking" and that "cigarette advertising appears to increase young people's risk of smoking" (Surgeon General's Report, 1994).

Here are some facts about tobacco advertising that you may not have known. Learn about what's really going on so that you can protect yourself and your loved ones from becoming victims of those marketing strategies!

To learn more about media literacy and how to avoid falling prey to the marketing tactics from tobacco and other companies, visit the Media Literacy Resources section of the Tobacco Control Resources page and the Tobacco Advertising and YOU section of the Links page. For activities to help you and others learn about the effects of tobacco advertising, visit the Activity Ideas page.

Tobacco Marketing more than doubles the odds that teens will become tobacco users. (Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 2006)
Tobacco marketing can encourage teen smokers to smoke more heavily, increasing by 42 percent the odds they will become heavy smokers. (Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 2006)
81.3 percent of youth (12-17) smokers prefer Marlboro, Camel and Newport – three heavily advertised brands. Nearly half of teen smokers choose Marlboro, the most heavily advertised brand, but only about 40 percent of smokers over age 25 choose Marlboro. (SAMSHA, 2006)
Teens who own a tobacco promotional item and can name a cigarette brand whose advertising attracted their attention are twice as likely to become smokers as teens who do neither. (American Journal of Public Health, 2000)
According to the 2007 N.C. Youth Tobacco Survey (N.C. YTS), 19 percent of N.C. high school students and 12.8 percent of N.C. middle school students own an item with a tobacco logo.
A survey released in March 2006 showed that kids were more than twice as likely as adults to recall tobacco advertising. While only 28 percent of adults recalled seeing a tobacco ad in the two weeks prior to the survey, 53 percent of kids aged 12 to 17 reported seeing tobacco ads. (ICR, 2006)
A study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that teens are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette advertising than they are by peer pressure. (NCI, 1995)
One study found that teenagers are three times as sensitive as adults to cigarette advertising. (Journal of Marketing, 1996)
A study of teenagers in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that teens are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette advertising than they are by peer pressure. (JAMA, 1998)
Spit tobacco “starter products”, such as snuff-filled pouches and candy-flavored snuff, have switched spit tobacco from a product used mostly by older men to one used mostly by young men. (CDC, 1994) More than 14 percent of U.S. high school boys are current smokeless tobacco users (CDC, 2002) and 15.9 percent of N.C. high school boys are spit tobacco users, according to the 2007 N.C. YTS.
According to the 2007 N.C. YTS, 23.1 percent of N.C. high school students and 18.7 percent of N.C. middle school students are “susceptible” to smoking. Youth are considered “susceptible” to smoking if they answered “yes” to at least one of four acknowledged susceptibility questions.
In 2008, the National Cancer Institute released a report concluding that the tobacco industry lures smokers with three themes: that tobacco provides satisfaction, that the dangers of tobacco shouldn't provoke anxiety, and that tobacco is associated with desirable outcomes such as social success. The report also concludes that a causal relationship exists between tobacco promotion and ads and increased tobacco use.