RJR Nabisco's cartoon camel promotes Camel cigarettes to children

Article Abstract:

Faced with a steady decline of one million smokers each year in the US, the tobacco industry must recruit new smokers among children and teenagers, who make up 90 percent of all new smokers. It is possible that the industry actively promotes addiction to nicotine among these age groups, in spite of its assertion that advertising is designed to convince adult smokers to switch brands. The extent to which cigarette advertising influences children was investigated in this study of 1,060 high school children from five states (Georgia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Mexico, Washington). In addition, 345 adults (21 years and over) from Massachusetts were also evaluated. Of particular interest was subjects' responses to ''Old Joe'', a cartoon camel used by the RJR Nabisco Company since 1988 to advertise Camel cigarettes. Some analysts believe that this approach aims to compete with Philip Morris's in reaching the children's market, an illegal segment of the cigarette market. Subjects were asked to rate the ads as ''cool or stupid'' and ''interesting or boring''. They were also asked whether they recognized the character and whether they could identify the product being advertised. Results showed that children were much more likely than adults to recognize the Old Joe character (97.7 percent recognition versus 72.2 percent). In addition, children were better than adults (97.5 percent versus 67 percent) at identifying the product advertised by Old Joe. The high school children found the Camel cartoon advertisements more appealing than did adults. Studies carried out prior to the Old Joe campaign (1986) indicated that only 2.7 percent of smokers aged 17 to 24 years chose Camels. In the current study, the brand was preferred by 32.8 percent of smokers younger than 18 years. Camel's share of the illegal children's cigarette market has increased from 0.5 percent to 32.8 percent. The results show that the three-year Old Joe campaign has exerted an ''astounding'' influence on children's smoking behavior. The discussion reviews evidence that the industry has addiction of children as one of its goals. The authors assert that tobacco advertising and promotion should be banned for health reasons. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

---

Brand logo recognition by children aged 3 to 6 years: Mickey Mouse and Old Joe the Camel

Article Abstract:

Several views have been expressed concerning the effects of tobacco advertising on children, ranging from that of health experts who believe that cigarette advertising can actually cause people to smoke, to that of the tobacco industry, which maintains that advertising does not increase the use of tobacco products. Rather, the industry asserts, advertising is aimed at adult smokers who may want to change brands (an unlikely goal, since only 10 percent of smokers in any year change brands). The impact of cigarette advertising on 229 very young children (aged 3 to 6 years) was evaluated in this study. The subjects (123 boys) attended 10 preschools in Georgia. They were tested individually for their abilities to match 22 brand logo cards to pictures of products. Logos did not show images that could indicate the kind of product they represented. Logos included products targeted mainly for adults (Chevrolet, Apple computer); products aimed at children (the Disney channel, McDonalds); and two cigarette brands (Marlboro, Camel). Slightly more than 47 percent of the subjects watched fewer than two hours of television daily; 44 percent watched between two and four hours daily; and 9 percent watched 4 or more hours daily. Children had high recognition of children's brand logos (91.7 percent recognition for the Disney channel). More than half the subjects correctly matched Old Joe (the Camel cigarette logo) with the picture of a cigarette. Recognition rates for the other cigarette logos varied between 18 percent and 32.8 percent. Recognition rates by older children were higher for all products. Recognition scores were not associated with race or gender. Ten percent of the subjects matched the Surgeon General's health warning logo (concerning cigarettes) with a picture of a cigarette. Children, called ''consumers in training'' by marketing researchers, remember advertising and are reached equally effectively by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and by the Disney channel. The health consequences of this remain to be seen, but cigarette advertising clearly affects what children know. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Evaluation, Children as consumers, Child consumers, Warning labels

---

Recall and eye tracking study of adolescents viewing tobacco advertisements

Article Abstract:

Health warnings on cigarette advertisements, required by federal law, are intended to educate the public about the health risks of smoking cigarettes. The effectiveness of the warnings was evaluated in 61 teenagers. An eye tracking apparatus was used to record where the eyes traveled while scanning the tobacco advertisement. Eight percent of the total viewing time of the advertisement was spent on looking at the Surgeon General's warning. The warning was not viewed at all 43.6 percent of the time. After viewing the cigarette ads, participants were practically unable to recognize which warning was displayed in the advertisements. Their scores were slightly better than those for random guessing. As far as teenagers are concerned, the Surgeon General's warning is not an effective public health education tool.

Case studies, Prevention, Surveys, Teenagers, Youth, Marketing research, Market research, Cigarettes

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: The effect of atherosclerosis on the vasomotor response of coronary arteries to mental stress. Coronary vasoconstriction: visible and invisible
• Abstracts: Postexposure chemoprophylaxis: approval criteria for clinical trials. Postexposure chemoprophylaxis with ZDV or ZDV combined with interferon-alpha: failure after inoculating rhesus monkeys with a high does of SIV
• Abstracts: Cyanide antidotes and fire toxicology. Brief report: treatment of severe colchicine overdose with colchicine-specific Fab fragments
• Abstracts: Paraspinal muscle fibrosis: a specific pathological component in ankylosing spondylitis. Ankylosing spondylitis: an autoimmune disease?
• Abstracts: Implications for clinical management in patients with breast cancer: long-term effects of reconstruction surgery

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.