Camel No. 9 Cigarette-Marketing Campaign Targeted Young Teenage Girls

A body of research in the '90s demonstrated that innovative marketing campaigns for cigarette brands had effectively encouraged adolescents to start smoking. The public health response included the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which restricted tobacco marketing to underage youth. This national study, which interviewed teens about their awareness of cigarette brands, assesses whether cigarette-advertising campaigns conducted after the MSA continue to influence smoking among adolescents. Its findings suggest that a recent marketing campaign for Camel cigarettes attracted the interest of teen girls.

The study, which surveyed 1,036 adolescents, finds that advertisements for Camel No. 9 cigarettes -- which ran in magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Glamour -- were a hit with girls ages 12 to 16. In 2008, within a year of the ads' debut, 22 percent of girls listed Camel as their favorite cigarette ad -- double the number recorded in four earlier surveys.

Overall, nearly half of girls could name a favorite cigarette ad, suggesting that ads are still reaching youth in spite of the 1998 marketing ban. Non-smoking teens who can name a favorite ad are 50 percent more likely to begin smoking than those who cannot.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, by the American Academy of Pediatrics, was co-authored by Cheryl Healton, president of the anti-smoking group the American Legacy Foundation, and John Pierce of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California-San Diego. 

Read the report.