Black-white differences in appeal of cigarette advertisements among adolescents

Correspondence to : Dr P P Huang, Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, 1100 West 49th Street, Austin, Texas 78756-3199, USA. Abstract Objectives -To identify differences be tween black and white adolescents in the appeal of cigarette advertisements; to compare the appeal of different kinds of advertisements (cartoons, human models, text only) ; and to determine what images about smokers and smoking are conveyed to adolescents by different ciga rette advertisements. Design Students completed an anony mous self administered questionnaire and reported subjective responses to 13 recent cigarette advertisements. Participants A convenience sample of 243 seventh and eighth grade students (age range 12 to 14) attending two junior high schools in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1991. Results Advertisements featuring the cartoon character Joe Camel were signifi cantly more appealing to both black and white students than were advertisements with human models and with text only (p < 0001). Text only advertisements were significantly less appealing than other types of advertisements among both black and white students (p < 0001). Two advertisements featuring black models were significantly more appealing to black students than white students (p = 003 and p < 0001). Cigarette advertise ments conveyed distinct desirable images about the depicted models to both black and white students : Joe Camel was " cool " and "fun," and female models were "slim" and "good looking." Conclusion This study provides further support for the year 2000 national ob jective to "eliminate or severely restrict all forms of tobacco product advertising and promotion to which youth younger than age 18 are likely to be exposed."