Newport made its most significant inroads with the white and Hispanic
teen market, say Karen Gerlach, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation and colleagues. Their study appears in the American Journal
of Health Behavior.
Newport cigarettes contain menthol, which may make them
less harsh-tasting and easier for experimenting teens to smoke, Gerlach
and colleagues say.
They also suggest that expanded advertising campaigns may have helped
increase the brand’s popularity.
“Further research is needed to examine why adolescents are moving
to menthol … especially given the recent introduction of menthol
versions of Camel and Marlboro,” Gerlach says.
In 1996, Marlboro, Camel and Newport accounted for more than 90 percent
of the cigarettes usually bought by teens. Teens usually smoked the brand
associated with their favorite cigarette advertisement, the researchers
found.
“Studies have shown that brand-name cigarette use is more concentrated
among adolescents and that adolescents who smoke are more adept at identifying
tobacco advertising,” Gerlach says.
Gerlach and colleagues examined data from three national surveys of teen
smokers in 1989, 1993 and 1996. During that seven-year span, tobacco advertising
and promotion budgets increased from $3.62 billion to $5.11 billion. Tobacco
advertising and promotion topped $11 billion in 2003.
Ad appeal and cigarette preferences didn’t always
coincide among the teens. Only 52 percent of white teens who said Newport
ads were their
favorite actually smoked those cigarettes. Only 39 percent of black teens
who liked Marlboro ads best said that they usually smoked that brand.
