PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Hanewinkel, Reiner AU - Isensee, Barbara AU - Sargent, James D. AU - Morgenstern, Matthis TI - Cigarette Advertising and Teen Smoking Initiation AID - 10.1542/peds.2010-2934 DP - 2011 Feb 01 TA - Pediatrics PG - e271--e278 VI - 127 IP - 2 4099 - http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/2/e271.short 4100 - http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/2/e271.full SO - Pediatrics2011 Feb 01; 127 AB - OBJECTIVE: To test the specificity of the association between cigarette advertising and adolescent smoking initiation.METHODS: A longitudinal survey of 2102 adolescents, aged 10 to 17 years at baseline, who never smoked was conducted by using masked images of 6 cigarette advertisements and 8 other commercial products with all brand information digitally removed. The exposure variable was a combination of contact frequency and cued recall of brands for cigarette and other advertisements. Multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regressions were used to assess smoking initiation 9 months after the baseline assessment as a function of cigarette-advertisement exposure, other advertisement exposure, and baseline covariates.RESULTS: Thirteen percent (n = 277) of students initiated smoking during the observation period. Although the incidence of trying smoking was associated with increased exposure to cigarette advertisements (10% in the low, 12% in the medium, and 19% in the high cigarette-advertisement exposure tertile initiated smoking), exposure to other advertisements did not predict smoking initiation. Compared with low exposure to cigarette advertisements, high exposure remained a significant predictor of adolescent smoking initiation after controlling for baseline covariates (adjusted relative risk: 1.46 [95% confidence interval: 1.08–1.97]; P < .05).CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the notion of a content-related effect of cigarette advertisements and underlines the specificity of the relationship between tobacco marketing and teen smoking; exposure to cigarette advertisements, but not other advertisements, is associated with smoking initiation.