Portraying tobacco industry in a negative light an effective smoking deterrent

by Rich Bowden - May 7 2009, 15:15

Running advertising campaigns directed at young adults that attack the reputation of the tobacco industry have been found to be effective in reducing the incidence of smoking in the age group, a U.S. study has found.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), found that adverts targeting the tobacco industry rather than those that outline the health hazards of smoking proved to be more effective in the 18 to 25 age group -- the highest smoking group in the United States.

"Running anti-tobacco ads to expose the fact that the tobacco industry kills five million people worldwide annually turns out to be hugely successful in preventing and promoting cessation," said Stanton Glantz, Ph.D., study co-author, professor of medicine, and director of UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education in a news release.

"Other anti-smoking advertising campaigns have focused more on health hazards of smoking, rather than those including tobacco-industry denormalization messages," Glantz added.

Pamela Ling, MD, MPH, lead author of the study and assistant professor of general internal medicine at UCSF, added that the change in focus of the study was what made the UCSF research different.

"This is the first study to examine attitudes toward the tobacco industry itself as motivating smoking behavior in young adults," she said. "The results show a huge effect of attitudes linked to advertising campaigns that focus on portraying the tobacco industry in a negative light."

"The tobacco industry cares a lot about public opinion and hates those ads, because the ads make the industry look bad,” added Ling.

The UCSF study measured attitudes of 1,528 people in the 18 to 25 age range through questions covering attitudes toward the tobacco industry, support of action against the industry, social groups, receptivity to advertising, depression, alcohol use, and other factors associated with smoking, said the university statement.

The findings of the study are published online at the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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