The Impact of Cigarette Marketing Practices on Youth Smoking Uptake

The presence of P-O-P advertising increases the chances that teens experiment with smoking, while promotions and price discounts increase the likelihood that they progress from experimentation to regular smoking, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine."The Impact of Retail Cigarette Marketing Practices on Youth Smoking Uptake," conducted as part of the "Bridging the Gap Initiative: Research Informing Practice and Policy for Healthy Youth Behavior," examined how cigarette retail marketing strategies influence the progression of adolescents from experimentation to established smoking. Authors were Sandy J. Slater, PhD, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago; Frank J. Chaloupka, PhD, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago; Melanie Wakefield, PhD, The Cancer Council, Victoria, Australia; Lloyd D. Johnston, PhD, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and Patrick M. O'Malley, PhD, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.More than 26,300 students participated in the study, divided in roughly equal numbers of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. Participants were assigned to one of six initial classifications: 1. never smoker; 2. puffer (smoked once or twice); 3. nonrecent experimenter (smoked occasionally, but not in the past 30 days); 4. former established smoker (smoked regularly in the past, but not in the past 30 days; 5. recent experimenter (smoked occasionally, but not regularly, in the past 30 days); and 6. current established smoker. To assess advertising penetration, a scale was constructed representing the proportion of stores in a site having any property, exterior, interior, functional object, or low-height advertising. Researchers examined how increases in the advertising scale affected movement of participants from one smoking threshold to higher levels.Among the findings:Results for threshold 1 (going from nonsmoker to puffer) showed that an increase in moving up a level on the advertising scale (the proportion of stores in a community having an additional type of advertising) increased the odds of an adolescent moving from the nonsmoking to the puffer stage by a factor of 1.08, or a relative increase of 8%. (See chart 1.)Beginning at threshold 2 (nonrecent experimenter), advertising was no longer significant, but price had a strong significant negative effect on smoking uptake. Results suggest that for every dollar increase in price, the odds that an adolescent will move on to the next level of smoking decrease by 24%. The magnitude of the effect of higher cigarette prices on smoking uptake varies slightly by threshold; but overall, this finding was consistent across the remaining thresholds (3-5). Beginning at threshold 3 (former established smoker), the presence of promotions had a positive effect on moving youth along the smoking uptake continuum. Results of thresholds 4 and 5 also showed that the proportion of stores having any promotions significantly increased the odds of youth moving to higher levels of smoking uptake.The authors also note that "the findings support previous research that shows price-based promotional offers are particularly appealing to young price-sensitive smokers. Thus, the beneficial effects of higher cigarette prices are undermined when youth are able to take advantage of cigarette promotions.""This finding is particularly significant because the latest Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report shows a substantial increase in price discounts (71.4% or $10.78 billion), such as buy downs, paid to retailers in 2003 to reduce the price of cigarettes to consumers. Beginning in 2002, there was a definite shift away from retail value-added promotions toward price discounts, which would be reflected in the recorded cigarette price rather than through the presence of a promotional offer. This shift toward price discounts is reflected in the data used for this study." (See chart 2.)

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