Search

Purpose: Virtually nothing is known about the potential effects of tobacco advertising on tobacco use among youth experiencing homelessness, a vulnerable population with high tobacco use rates. This study examines associations between the appeal of advertising for 5 classes of tobacco product (electronic cigarettes, hookah, cigars, cigarillos, and smokeless tobacco) and future intentions to use those products again among homeless youth who had indicated any level of lifetime use., Design: A cross-sectional design was used., Setting: Settings were 25 service and street sites in Los Angeles County., Participants: A probability sample of 469 young tobacco users experiencing homelessness (mean age = 22; 71% male; 29% non-Hispanic White) was recruited., Measures: Assessments included product-specific tobacco advertising appeal and future intentions to use the product again, as well as a range of covariate controls (eg, demographics, homelessness severity, current tobacco use, general advertising exposure)., Analysis: Linear regression tested for associations between the appeal of advertising for a specific tobacco product and intentions to use that product again in the future, controlling for myriad covariates., Results: Advertising appeal was positively associated with future intentions to use again for electronic cigarettes ( P = .006) and hookah ( P = .001), but not cigars ( P = .486), cigarillos ( P = .126), or smokeless tobacco ( P = .109)., Conclusion: Results suggest that advertising appeal may increase use of certain tobacco products among youth experiencing homelessness. However, differences in themes emphasized by advertising for specific tobacco products could differentially influence use in this population.

Introduction: Adolescents' e-cigarette use is now more prevalent than their combustible cigarette use. Youth are exposed to e-cigarette advertising at retail point-of-sale (POS) locations via the tobacco power wall (TPW), but no studies have assessed whether exposure to the TPW influences susceptibility to future e-cigarette use., Methods: The study was conducted in the RAND Store Lab (RSL), a life-sized replica of a convenience store developed to experimentally evaluate how POS advertising influences tobacco use risk under simulated shopping conditions. In a between-subjects experiment, 160 adolescents (M age = 13.82; 53% female, 56% white) were randomized to shop in the RSL under one of two conditions: (1) TPW located behind the cashier (n = 80); or (2) TPW hidden behind an opaque wall (n = 80). Youths rated willingness to use e-cigarettes ("If one of your best friends were to offer you an e-cigarette, would you try it?"; 1 = definitely not, 10 = definitely yes) before and after exposure. Linear regression assessed differences in pre-post changes in willingness to use across conditions., Results: Ever-use of e-cigarettes was 5%; use of cigarettes was 8%; use of both e-cigarettes and cigarettes was 4%. There were no differences between TPW conditions on these or other baseline variables (eg, age, gender). Compared to the hidden condition, TPW exposure was associated with greater increases in willingness to use e-cigarettes in the future (B = 1.15, standard error [SE] = 0.50, p = .02)., Conclusions: Efforts to regulate visibility of the TPW at POS may help to reduce youths' susceptibility to initiating e-cigarettes as well as conventional tobacco products like cigarettes., Implications: Past work suggests that exposure to the TPW in common retail settings, like convenience stores, may increase adolescents' susceptibility to smoking cigarettes. This experimental study builds upon prior research to show that exposure to the TPW at retail POS similarly increases adolescents' willingness to use e-cigarettes in the future. Efforts to regulate the visibility of the TPW in retail settings may help to reduce youths' susceptibility to initiating nicotine and tobacco products, including e-cigarettes., (© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objectives: This experiment tested whether introducing graphic antitobacco posters at point-of-sale (POS) had any effect on adolescents' susceptibility to future cigarette smoking and whether these effects were moderated by adolescents' baseline risk of cigarette smoking., Methods: The study was conducted in the RAND StoreLab, a life-sized replica of a convenience store that was developed to experimentally evaluate how changing aspects of tobacco advertising displays in retail POS environments influence tobacco use risk and behavior during simulated shopping experiences. In this study, 441 adolescents were randomized to one of the four conditions in a 2 (graphic antismoking poster placed near the tobacco power wall: no, yes) × 2 (graphic antismoking poster placed near the cash register: no, yes) experimental design. The outcome of interest was susceptibility to future cigarette smoking., Results: The addition of antismoking posters at POS led to a significant increase in future smoking susceptibility among those adolescents who already were at high risk for smoking in the future (p < .045). The introduction of graphic antismoking posters had no impact on committed never smokers, regardless of poster location; never smokers' susceptibility to future smoking was uniformly low across experimental conditions., Conclusions: Introducing graphic antismoking posters at POS may have the unintended effect of further increasing cigarette smoking susceptibility among adolescents already at risk.

The purpose of this correlational study was to evaluate the association between attention paid by adolescents to the tobacco power wall and their susceptibility to future smoking. The study was conducted in the RAND Store Lab (RSL), a life-sized replica of a convenience store designed to investigate how tobacco advertising displays in retail point-of-sale environments relate to tobacco use risk and behaviors. In this study, middle and high school students (N = 80) shopped in the RSL while their attention to the tobacco power wall was measured covertly. Before and after shopping in the RSL, participants completed a measure of susceptibility to smoking in the future. Controlling for baseline cigarette smoking susceptibility and other potential confounders, attention toward the tobacco power wall was found to be significantly associated with future smoking susceptibility, p = .046. This finding suggests that policies aimed at decreasing the prominence of power walls in retail outlets should be given careful consideration as ways to reduce the impact of point-of-sale tobacco advertising and promotion on youth smoking susceptibility., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify the persistence of immediate changes in adolescents' alcohol-related beliefs associated with exposure to alcohol advertising., Method: Middle school students (N = 606) carried handheld devices for 14 days and logged all of their exposures to alcohol advertisements as they naturally occurred. Perceptions of the typical person one's age who drinks ("prototype perceptions") and perceived norms regarding alcohol use were assessed after each exposure to advertising and at random prompts issued daily throughout the assessment period. Generalized additive modeling was used to determine how long pro-drinking shifts in beliefs persisted after exposure to advertising., Results: Following exposure to advertisements, positivity of youth's prototype perceptions immediately increased (β = .07, 95% CI [.06, .09]) and then decreased (β = -.05, 95% CI [-.07, -.03]) over the subsequent 1.5 days, whereas perceived normativeness of alcohol use immediately increased (β = .04, 95% CI [.01, .06]) and then decreased (β = -.03, 95% CI [-.05, -.01]) over the subsequent 2 days. Changes in beliefs occurring after 1.5 days for prototype perceptions and after 2 days for perceived norms were not statistically significant, suggesting that these beliefs were no longer affected by the advertising exposure., Conclusions: Findings are consistent with theories of alcohol advertising effects that presume that repeated exposure results in cumulative, enduring effects on beliefs. Given the rate of decay of alcohol advertising effects, it may be important to limit youth exposures to one every 2 days to avoid cumulative, lasting pro-drinking shifts in beliefs or to devise ways to interrupt cumulative effects with counter-messaging through media, parents, or other influential others at similar intervals.

Objectives: Tobacco power walls display hundreds of tobacco products and are known to be a key part of the impact of point-of-sale tobacco advertising on risk for smoking in adolescents. The current study examined factors that are hypothesized to mediate the effect of tobacco power wall exposure on adolescents' susceptibility for smoking in the future., Method: Participants (N = 148) aged 11-17 years were invited to shop in the RAND StoreLab, a life-sized replica of a convenience store. They were randomized to 1 of 2 conditions: one in which the power wall was located in its typical position behind the cashier and the other in which it was hidden behind an opaque wall. Participants shopped in the RAND StoreLab and then completed measures of susceptibility for smoking in the future, perceived smoking norms, and perceived accessibility of cigarettes. Participants' movements in the store were electronically tracked., Results: Having the tobacco power wall behind the cashier increased adolescents' susceptibility for smoking in the future by 14.3% (total effect) compared with when the power wall was hidden (p = .01), and 14% of this effect was mediated by participants' perceived smoking norms. Time spent in front of the cashier and perceived accessibility of cigarettes did not play a role in the association between study condition and susceptibility for smoking in the future., Conclusions: The tobacco power wall increases adolescents' smoking risk, and this effect is partly explained by the effect of the power wall on adolescents' perceptions of how normative smoking is. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).)

Objective: Recent research revealed momentary associations between exposure to alcohol advertising and positive beliefs about alcohol among adolescents (Martino et al., 2016). We reanalyzed those data to determine whether associations depend on adolescents' appraisal of ads., Method: Over a 10-month period in 2013, 589 youth, ages 11-14, in the Los Angeles, CA, area, participated in a 14-day ecological momentary assessment, logging all exposures to alcohol advertisements as they occurred and completing brief assessments of their skepticism toward, liking of, and identification with any people in each ad, as well as their alcohol-related beliefs at the moment. Participants also completed measures of their alcohol- related beliefs at random moments of nonexposure throughout each day. Mixed-effects regression models compared beliefs about alcohol at moments of exposure to alcohol advertising that was appraised in a particular way (e.g., with liking, without liking) to beliefs at random moments., Results: When youth encountered ads they appraised positively, their beliefs about alcohol were significantly more positive than when they were queried at random moments. Beliefs in the presence of ads that were not positively appraised were generally similar to beliefs at random moments., Conclusion: Youth are active participants in the advertising process. How they respond to and process alcohol advertising strongly moderates the association between exposure and alcohol-related beliefs. More effort is needed to identify attributes of alcohol advertisements, and of youth, that determine how youth process alcohol ads. This information can be used to either limit exposure to problematic ads or make youth more resilient to such exposure. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Little is known about the extent and nature of youth exposure to online alcohol advertising, or factors that may be associated with exposure. The current study recruited middle school students who completed a paper survey and then logged each alcohol advertisement that they encountered over a 2-week period using cell phones as part of an ecological momentary assessment design. We examined the percentage of youth who reported exposure to online alcohol advertising in the past 2 weeks, average weekly rate of exposure, types of online alcohol advertisements youth reported seeing, and factors that increased youths' risk of exposure to online alcohol advertising. Analyses are based on 485 participants (47% female; 25% Hispanic, 25% White, 27% Black; 6% Asian, 16% other). Youth logged exposures to a total of 3,966 (16,018 weighted for underreporting) alcohol advertisements across the monitoring period; 154 (568 weighted) or 3.6% were online ads. Seventeen percent of youth reported seeing any online alcohol ad; the majority of online ads seen were video commercials (44.8%) and banner/side ads (26.6%). Factors associated with greater ad exposure were being older, rebellious, and Black race; greater parental monitoring and more hours spent on social media were associated with less exposure. Findings provide important information about adolescents' exposure to online alcohol advertising and what might contribute to a greater likelihood of exposure. Given that online ad exposure is linked to drinking behavior, prevention programming for younger adolescents should continue to address this issue to help youth make healthy choices regarding alcohol use. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify middle school youth's exposure to alcohol advertisements across media and venues, determine venues of greatest exposure, and identify characteristics of youth who are most exposed., Method: Over a 10-month period in 2013, 589 Los Angeles-area youth ages 11-14 from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds completed a short paper-and-pencil survey assessing background characteristics and then participated in a 14-day ecological momentary assessment, logging all exposures to alcohol advertisements on handheld computers as they occurred., Results: African American and Hispanic youth were exposed to an average of 4.1 and 3.4 advertisements per day, respectively, nearly two times as many as non-Hispanic White youth, who were exposed to 2.0 advertisements per day. Girls were exposed to 30% more advertisements than boys. Most exposures were to outdoor advertisements, with television advertisements a close second., Conclusions: Exposure to alcohol advertising is frequent among middle school-age youth and may put them at risk for earlier or more frequent underage drinking. Greater restrictions on alcohol advertising outdoors and on television should be considered by regulators and by the alcohol industry and should focus particularly on reducing exposure among minority youth.

Purpose: To evaluate the momentary association between exposure to alcohol advertising and middle-school students' beliefs about alcohol in real-world settings and to explore racial/ethnic differences in this association., Methods: Middle-school students (N = 588) carried handheld data collection devices for 14 days, recording their exposures to all forms of alcohol advertising during the assessment period. Students also responded to three investigator-initiated control prompts (programmed to occur randomly) on each day of the assessment period. After each exposure to advertising and at each control prompt, students reported their beliefs about alcohol. Mixed-effects regression models compared students' beliefs about alcohol between moments of exposure to alcohol advertising and control prompts., Results: Students perceived the typical person their age who drinks alcohol (prototype perceptions) more favorably and perceived alcohol use as more normative at times of exposure to alcohol advertising than at times of nonexposure (i.e., at control prompts). Exposure to alcohol advertising was not associated with shifts in the perceived norms of black and Hispanic students, however, and the association between exposure and prototype perceptions was stronger among non-Hispanic students than among Hispanic students., Conclusions: Exposure to alcohol advertising is associated with acute shifts in adolescents' perceptions of the typical person that drinks alcohol and the normativeness of drinking. These associations are both statistically and substantively meaningful., (Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To quantify the persistence of pro-smoking media exposure effects on college students' intentions to smoke and smoking refusal self-efficacy., Method: A total of 134 college students (ages 18-24 years) were enrolled in an ecological momentary assessment study in which they carried handheld data collection devices for 3 weeks and reported their exposures to pro-smoking media as they occurred in the real world. Smoking intentions and smoking refusal self-efficacy were assessed after each exposure to pro-smoking media and at random prompts during each day of the 3-week assessment period. A generalized additive model was used to determine how long the effect of an exposure to pro-smoking media persisted., Results: The effect of pro-smoking media exposures persisted for 7 days. After exposure, smoking intentions immediately increased (.56; 95% confidence interval [CI]: [.26, .87]) and then steadily decreased (-.12; 95% CI: [-.19, -.05]) each day for 7 days, while smoking refusal self-efficacy immediately decreased (-.42; 95% CI: [-.75, -.10]) and then steadily increased (.09; 95% CI: [.02, .16]) each day for 7 days. Daily changes occurring after 7 days were not statistically significant, suggesting that smoking intentions and refusal self-efficacy had stabilized and were no longer affected by pro-smoking media exposure., Conclusions: Exposures to pro-smoking media may have strong implications for emerging young adults smoking risk as the impact of an individual exposure appears to persist for at least a week., (Copyright © 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Message content in anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs) can be delivered explicitly (directly with concrete statements) or implicitly (indirectly via metaphor), and the method of delivery may affect the efficacy of those PSAs. The purpose of this study was to conduct an initial test of this idea using tobacco industry manipulation PSAs in adolescents. A 2 (age: 11-14 years old; 15-17 years old)x2 (message delivery: implicit, explicit) mixed model design was used. There was a significant main effect of message delivery: Tobacco industry manipulation PSAs that delivered their messages explicitly were associated with stronger levels of smoking resistance self-efficacy compared to tobacco industry manipulation PSAs that delivered their messages implicitly. No significant main effects of age were found nor were any interactions between age and message delivery. These results suggest that message delivery factors should be taken into account when designing anti-smoking PSAs., (Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Increased exposure to cigarette advertisements is associated with increases in adolescent smoking but the reasons for this association are not well established. This study evaluated whether self-concept development (operationalized as level of self-conflict) and identifying with the models used in cigarette print advertising contributed to smoking intentions among adolescents. Ninety-five adolescents (ages 11-17) participated in this two session study. In session 1, they rated the extent to which they identified with the models used in 10 current cigarette print ads (the models were isolated digitally from the cigarette advertisements) and their level of self-conflict was assessed. In session 2, participants viewed each of the 10 cigarette advertisements from which the models were drawn and rated their intentions to smoke following exposure to each ad. Model identification was associated with similar levels of post ad exposure smoking intentions for both younger and older adolescents when they also exhibited no self-conflict. A contrasting set of findings emerged for younger and older adolescents when they exhibited high levels of self-conflict: Young adolescents who strongly identified with the models used in cigarette advertisements had higher post ad exposure smoking intentions compared to younger adolescents who weakly identified with the models used in the advertisements; in contrast, older adolescents who weakly identified with the models used in cigarette advertisements had stronger post ad exposure smoking intentions compared to older adolescents who strongly identified with the models used in the advertisements. These results point to the importance of examining developmentally-relevant moderators for the effects of cigarette advertising exposure.

Introduction: This study examined whether the appeal of actors (i.e., their likeability and attractiveness) used in antismoking public service announcements (PSAs) interacts with adolescents' risk of future smoking to predict adolescents' smoking resistance self-efficacy and whether the antismoking messages in the PSAs further moderate this relationship., Methods: We used a 2 (future smoking risk: low, high) x 2 (actor appeal: low, high) x 3 (PSA antismoking message: tobacco industry manipulation, short-term smoking effects, long-term smoking effects) study design. A diverse sample of 110 adolescents (aged 11-17 years), with varying levels of experience with smoking, rated their smoking resistance self-efficacy after viewing each of the PSAs in each design cell., Results: Overall, PSAs that used long-term smoking effects messages were associated with the strongest smoking resistance self-efficacy, followed in turn by PSAs that used short-term smoking effects messages and by tobacco industry manipulation messages. We found a significant interaction of actor appeal and PSA antismoking message. The use of more appealing actors was associated with stronger smoking resistance self-efficacy only in long-term smoking effects PSAs. The use of less appealing actors was associated with stronger smoking resistance self-efficacy for tobacco industry manipulation PSAs and short-term smoking effects PSAs. Future smoking risk did not moderate any of these findings., Discussion: Antismoking PSAs that emphasize long-term smoking effects are most strongly associated with increased smoking resistance self-efficacy. The effect of these PSAs can be strengthened by using actors whom adolescents perceive to be appealing.

Objective: Increased exposure to cigarette advertisements is associated with increases in adolescent smoking but the reasons for this association are not known. This study evaluated whether the developmental maturity of the self-concept, operationalized as self-conflict, moderated smoking intentions following exposure to cigarette advertisements among adolescents who have never smoked., Methods: Eighty-seven adolescents (ages 11-17): (a) completed measures of self-conflict; (b) were exposed to 30 contemporary cigarette advertisements; and (c) rated their intentions to smoke following exposure to each ad., Results: Younger adolescents with higher numbers of self-conflicts who also said that cigarette advertising was relevant to them had stronger smoking intentions compared to younger adolescents with lower numbers of self-conflicts after exposure to cigarette advertising. Self-conflict did not play as strong a role with older adolescents., Conclusions: Younger adolescents (i.e., middle school aged) who are having the most difficulty figuring out "who they are" are most susceptible to the effects of cigarette advertising.

Studies have shown that increased exposure to cigarette advertising increases adolescents' risk of smoking and moreover, that gender may play an important role in moderating how cigarette advertisements are viewed and processed. However, information about the particular features of cigarette advertising that interact with gender to promote smoking among adolescents is scarce. The purpose of this study was to examine if gender moderates the degree to which the relaxation valence (i.e., degree to which relaxing themes are emphasized) of cigarette advertisements is related to smoking intentions in a sample of never smoking adolescents. Regardless of brand type (of the seven brands studied), cigarette advertisements that displayed highly relaxing images were associated with increased intentions to smoke among female adolescents only. These results have implications for understanding what features of cigarette advertisements have the most influence among different groups of adolescents.

Quest cigarettes are a relatively new (2003) product that has been marketed as a way for smokers to gradually reduce the nicotine they receive from cigarettes in order to, according to marketing materials, become nicotine free. However, despite lower levels of nicotine, Quest cigarettes do not have reduced tar levels and, thus, still pose health hazards. This study evaluated beliefs about Quest cigarettes following exposure to a single print advertisement among 200 regular smokers who had never heard of the brand itself. Descriptively, smokers made several specific false inferences about Quest cigarettes after exposure (i.e., lower in tar, healthier, less likely to cause cancer). Two individual-differences variables, need for cognition and perceived vulnerability, moderated smokers' health beliefs about Quest cigarettes.

The studies presented in this manuscript evaluated the role that affect and the self-concept play in adolescent never smokers' reactions to the gender valence of cigarette advertising imagery. Study 1 (n=29; 59% female) revealed that adolescent females have more positive affective reactions to female-valenced cigarette advertising imagery compared to male-valenced cigarette advertising imagery. Study 2 (n=101; 56% female) revealed that adolescent females viewed female-valenced cigarette advertising imagery as more relevant to their self-concepts compared to male-valenced cigarette advertising imagery. Across both studies, male adolescents did not respond differently as a function of the gender valence of cigarette advertising imagery. Thus, female-valenced cigarette advertising imagery may have specific effects on never smoking female adolescents by enhancing positive affect and suggesting that women who smoke hold the same characteristics as do the young women themselves.

Cigarette advertising may be partly responsible for adolescent smoking initiation, but few studies have investigated the advertising and individual difference factors that may be responsible. This study evaluated whether individual differences in the number of self-conflicts (i.e., conflicts between personality attributes experienced as part of self-concept development) interacts with stage of development (early versus middle adolescence) to predict responses to cigarette advertising imagery. One hundred and one never smoking adolescents judged the self-relevance of various cigarette advertisements. As predicted, self-conflict was related to judgments of self-relevance for early adolescents only; early adolescents who are having the most difficulty defining themselves are more likely to look to the powerful images displayed by cigarette advertisements for help. These results have implications for understanding the impact of cigarette advertising on smoking initiation for some adolescents.

This study compared adolescents' unbiased perceptions of the images displayed in smoking and antismoking advertising. Twenty-nine adolescents (ages 11-17) were shown images taken from both advertising types; all images were digitally edited so that no product information appeared in them. Participants described each image in a free-response format and rated each image on self-report dimensions. Content analyses of free-response descriptions and analyses of self-reports revealed that adolescents viewed images taken from cigarette advertisements more positively compared with images taken from antismoking advertisements. These findings suggest that I reason for the potency of cigarette advertising, compared with antismoking advertising, is the inherent positive appeal of the images displayed. Antismoking advertising may be more effective at limiting adolescent smoking if the images displayed have a more positive valence.