Manufacturers' Anti-Smoking Ads Ineffective

This news article reviews studies analysing advertising strategies aimed at preventing teenage smoking. A recent report published in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers from the Cancer Council of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Michigan showed no correlation between the frequency of the tobacco industry's anti-smoking ads and actual or intended teen smoking. The conclusion was that the strategy of using teen-oriented anti-smoking advertising was having no impact while parent-oriented ads had an adverse effect on teens.

Controversy between researchers and the tobacco industry arose over whether or not tobacco ads were aimed to prevent teen smoking or delay it to the age of 18.

In defence of industry advertising strategy, tobacco industry representatives cited research showing that 61 percent of parents of teenagers were aware of anti-smoking ads and, of those, a majority had spoken with children as a result of seeing them.

The article includes slogans of both Lorillard and Philip Morris Tobacco Companies for their television-based anti-smoking campaigns: "Tobacco is Whacko if You're a Teen" and "Think. Don't Smoke."
According to the article, Philip Morris spent US$100 million dollars in 1998 on their campaign. However, some researchers claim that these ads might have "even greater adverse effects on youth smoking behaviour than suggested by this study."

The research attempts to open the question of whether teen advertising strategies and parent-oriented advertising strategies are actually contributing to increasing teen smoking rather than delaying or preventing teen smoking.