The Tobacco Tug-of-War: Advertising and Counteradvertising Tobacco Products to Youth

Abstract

Declines in smoking prevalence have slowed over the past few years for both youth under the age of 18 and young adults aged 18–24. A major contributing factor is the sustained and ever-evolving marketing and promotion strategies of the tobacco industry, including use of cartoon characters, distribution of free tobacco products, tobacco brand merchandise, and promotional social and sporting events sponsored by tobacco companies. With tobacco industry advertising and promotion expenditures well into the billions of dollars annually, it is a difficult task for public health officials to counter such influence. The use of edgy media campaigns that go beyond basic health education and also educate on the tactics used by the tobacco companies to attract smokers have been successful at reducing youth and young adult smoking rates. Since 1996, there have also been a range of regulatory efforts to prevent tobacco marketing to youth under the age of 18. The purpose of this article was to review the existing evidence on the range of practices used by the tobacco industry to recruit and retain youth and young adult smokers, as well as to place such efforts in the context of public heath tobacco control programs and policies intended to protect this population from engaging in tobacco use.