Study: tobacco advertisers defy rules, target youths

According to a new study by a UT researcher, tobacco companies are still targeting youths despite agreements that limit the marketing of smokeless tobacco.

The study, titled “Under the Radar: Smokeless Tobacco Advertising in Magazines with Substantial Youth Readership,” found that advertising restrictions have left a rather minuscule impression on smokeless tobacco advertising targeting youths. Margaret Morrison, a UT associate professor in advertising and public relations, co-authored the study.

“We hope that future researchers can use this (data) as a benchmark,” Morrison said.

In 1998, seven companies signed the Master Settlement Agreement to change the marketing of tobacco products. The agreement eliminated cartoons in tobacco advertising, billboard advertising and marketing toward youths. They also agreed to finance a $1.5 billion anti-smoking campaign.

The Smokeless Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement was signed the same year by the attorneys general and the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., the nation’s largest smokeless tobacco manufacturer. It was similar to the Master Settlement Agreement and detailed the financial settlement and restrictions on smokeless tobacco products

The study examined the percentage of magazine readership between ages 12 and 17 for the past 10 years. Data found that in the first year after the STMSA went into effect, advertising in magazines with high adolescent marketing increased. The smokeless tobacco magazine marketing exposed 83 percent of adolescents to their products before it dropped to 57 percent by 2000. Since then, rates have steadily increased.

Morrison said one possible reason for the delayed decline could be that some of the advertising contracts were already in place before the agreements were signed.

“Another reason could be that only one tobacco company signed it,” she added. “So you could be seeing a lot of additional advertising coming from other tobacco companies.”

The study also found that in 1993, the magazines in which smokeless tobacco companies advertised reached 66 percent of youth ages 12 to 17. In 2002, four years after the agreement was signed, the ads only dropped 2 percent, reaching 64 percent of youths.

“Our study is one of the first to look at this topic, and it provides a baseline for assessing youth exposure levels and monitoring the smokeless tobacco industry,” Morrison said in a press release.

Morrison, along with co-authors Dean Krugman, a journalism professor at the University of Georgia, and Pumsoon Park, a lecturer at Hongik University in South Korea, examined data from 1993 to 2002 and advertising in popular magazines such as Rolling Stone, Spin and Sports Illustrated.