New Study Suggests Removing All Imagery from Cigarette Ads

Images of attractive and enjoyable people in cigarette and beer advertisements have a definite impact on teenagers, but taking the people out of these ads may not reduce their impact significantly, according to a new study published in the American Marketing Association's Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.

Public health experts, youth advocates and many policy makers have expressed concerns about the effect of image advertising on teenagers and have advocated for text-only or tombstone advertising of tobacco and alcoholic beverages, with no human models, as a way to reduce their desirability among teenagers.

"This study shows that advertisements featuring attractive people and appealing life-styles create positive attitudes among teenagers toward the advertisement, the brand advertised and, most importantly, toward teenagers' perceptions of how cool or otherwise desirable the product is. When it comes to cigarette and beer advertising, creating such attitudes can have unfortunate consequences, and there is reason to be concerned. This study also shows that taking the people and the images out of the ads, and using text-only versions, reduces their appeal, although perhaps not by as much as one might think," according to Kathleen Kelly, Ph.D. and Michael Slater, Ph.D. of Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

"Some tobacco companies have already taken people out of some of their ads. Ads can be created in a way that makes the ads, the brands and the products appealing to teenagers without showing people in the ads, and perhaps even without any pictures at all," Slater said.

The researchers examined teenagers' attitudes toward existing ads for popular cigarette, beer and soft drink advertisements and compared them to text-only versions of the same ads without photographs or drawings. The text-only versions of the ads were created specifically for this study by an advertising agency. The two sets of ads, 94 in total, were tested on 384 middle-school youth, 12-16 years of age. Effects of imagery ads with and without recognizable people in the picture were also studied. (Samples of ads used in this study are on the web at www.saprp.org).

Tombstone advertising/ add one
The text-only ads that were created for this study were intended to be as appealing as possible, within the proposals to regulate cigarette advertising under the authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This study looked only at one portion of the proposed FDA regulations, related to tombstone advertising.

Soft drink advertisements were included in the study as a control measure. The text in the tombstone versions was similar to the text in the image advertisement, but was adapted as necessary for the text-only context. The image and text-only versions were rated on a scale for being "not at all" to "very" enjoyable, likable and appealing. The ratings examined attitudes toward an ad, the impact of that attitude on the brand being advertised and the subsequent effect on beer, cigarettes, or soft drinks being considered cool and in style. Effects of the presence or absence of imagery in the ads were generally similar for all three types of products.

"Image ads do result in more positive attitudes toward all three, the ads, the brands and the products, compared to the text-only ads. Removal of visual imagery from ads should impact youth perceptions regarding how cool or in-style beer and cigarettes are, though it is hard to say how large that effect would be over time. However, if only people, and not all imagery, are removed, there may be no effect at all, especially in the case of cigarettes," the researchers concluded.

The Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (SAPRP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funded the study. SAPRP is a $54 million program that supports policy research focused on alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs.

Based in Princeton, N.J., RWJF is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grant making in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse -- tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.

For more information, contact Prabhu Ponkshe at 703-918-4930

Editor's note: Although this press release was issued in November 2002, it has only recently come to our attention. We are publishing it now due to its relevance to ongoing tobacco control efforts.