Posted: Monday, November 6, 2006 6:00 pm
The surest way to get teens to do something is to tell them not to.
That principle appears to apply to some smoking-prevention ads created by tobacco companies, a new study has found.
Youngsters 12 to 17 were less likely to see smoking as harmful and had stronger intentions to smoke after seeing TV ads that urged parents to talk to their children about not lighting up, according to the study to be published in December in the American Journal of Public Health. The slogan of the national campaign, begun in 1999 by cigarette industry leader Philip Morris USA, was “Talk. They’ll listen.”
Eighth-graders likely to have seen the ads targeted at parents were more likely to believe that the dangers of smoking had been exaggerated and more likely to say they planned to smoke, the study found. Older teens also expressed stronger approval of smoking and were more likely to have smoked in the 30 days before the school survey.
— Wire reports