ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
A new salvo was fired in the war against the tobacco industry Wednesday, as anti-smoking advocates unveiled a study that reports underage smokers are three times more likely than adults to be influenced by cigarette advertising.
The study does not prove advertising causes teen-agers to start smoking - it did not address that question, according to its lead author, Richard Pollay, a marketing professor at the University of British Columbia. It concludes that 12- to 18-year-olds who already smoke are strongly affected by advertising in picking their brands.
``This study demonstrates with objective data that when the tobacco industry claims that its advertising does not appeal to children, they're wrong,'' said attorney Matt Myers, who represents Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington-based advocacy group. ``It's another example of where the tobacco industry is not telling the truth about what they do.''
The study comes as the Food and Drug Administration is considering strict regulations on cigarette advertising as a way to curb teen smoking. The report was plucked out of obscurity - it appears in this month's Journal of Marketing - by Myers' group, which was formed specifically to back the FDA effort and which invited Pollay to a news conference Wednesday to publicize his findings.
Walker Merryman, a spokesman for The Tobacco Institute, dismissed Wednesday's event as ``a great deal of sound and fury signifying nothing.'' He cited a previous study, also published in the Journal of Marketing and funded by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which he said ``flatly contradicted'' Pollay's report.
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB