Anti-smoking ads not affecting teens
Television ads that tobacco companies say are designed to discourage teenagers from smoking do no such thing, says a report in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers at the Cancer Council Victoria in Australia, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Michigan got television viewing data from Nielsen Media Research.
They looked at the reach and frequency of tobacco company-sponsored ads and whether they were seen by 12-to-17-year-olds in the largest 75 U.S. media markets, covering close to 80% of all U.S. households, from 1999 to 2002. They then looked at surveys of eighth, 10th and 12th graders in 48 states collected in the same period.
The data showed no correlation between frequency of the ads and actual or intended smoking by the teens.
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