Adolescent exposure to cigarette advertising in magazines: an evaluation of brand-specific advertising in relation to youth readership.

CONTEXT Understanding the relationship between cigarette advertising and youth smoking is essential to develop effective interventions. Magazine advertising accounts for nearly half of all cigarette advertising expenditures. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether cigarette brands popular among adolescent smokers are more likely than adult brands to advertise in magazines with high adolescent readerships. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis of 1994 data on (1) the presence of advertising by 12 cigarette brands in a sample of 39 popular US magazines; and (2) the youth (ages 12-17 years), young adult (ages 18-24 years), and total readership for each magazine. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The presence or absence of advertising in each of the 39 magazines in 1994 for each of the 12 cigarette brands. RESULTS After controlling for total magazine readership, the percentage of young adult readers, advertising costs and expenditures, and magazine demographics, youth cigarette brands (those smoked by more than 2.5% of 10- to 15-year-old smokers in 1993) were more likely than adult brands to advertise in magazines with a higher percentage of youth readers. Holding all other variables constant at their sample means, the estimated probability of an adult brand advertising in a magazine decreased over the observed range of youth readership from 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.50-0.96) for magazines with 4% youth readers to 0.18 (95% CI, 0.00-0.47) for magazines with 34% youth readers. In contrast, the estimated probability of a youth brand advertising in a magazine increased from 0.32 (95% CI, 0.00-0.65) at 4% youth readership to 0.92 (95% CI, 0.67-1.00) at 34% youth readership. CONCLUSION Cigarette brands popular among young adolescents are more likely than adult brands to advertise in magazines with high youth readerships.