Such a marketing strategy would be in violation of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between major U.S. tobacco companies and 46 states. The agreement specifically bans youth-targeted advertising.

The study by Paul Chung and Craig Garfield found that tobacco companies have found a way to appear to comply with the MSA while continuing to run ads directed at underage smokers. The researchers charged that tobacco companies are doing even more youth targeted advertising than they did before they signed the MSA.

Since the MSA doesn't specifically provide a definition of youth magazines, tobacco companies are using a standard offered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA defines a youth-oriented magazine as having more than 2 million readers under age 18. As a result, magazines such as Glamour, which are read by 1.9 million readers aged 12 to 17, don't fall under the FDA standards.

With these guidelines, Chung said that eliminating youth-targeted tobacco ads might be impossible without a complete ban on print advertising. "This is what was done with TV and radio ads," he said.

The major tobacco companies, including Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Philip Morris USA, and RJ Reynolds maintain that they do not market to children.

Tom Ryan, spokesman for Phillip Morris US, pointed out that the researchers based their study on magazine advertising from 1997 through 2000. "If they looked at data from 2001, the authors may have reached a different conclusion," Ryan said.

The study is published in the March/April issue of Health Affairs.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Your Turn! Post a public comment (read guidelines):

Name:
Comment: (limit 200 words)
Enter this word (help):	Change

GUIDELINES: 
To keep this feature useful for all, please:

1. Keep it clean, courteous, and on-topic. Comments are meant for thoughtful discussion of the article published above.
   
   
2. Do not post promotional links to organizations, products or services, or personal requests for assistance (get help).
   
   
3. Proof your comments carefully, use good spelling and punctuation, and don't use ALL CAPS. Comments are published immediately and cannot be edited.

Deceptive, slanderous and commercially-motivated posts are prohibited. We reserve the right to remove comments not conforming to these guidelines. (Report a comment).

Have questions or feedback? Contact us.