Adolescent's perception of cigarette advertisements

Abstract

A total of 190 male Form 4 students from three schools in Kota Bharu were studied on their perception of indirect cigarette advertisements in the local media. The most frequently advertising media for these students were television (32.4%), radio (23.9%) and newspaper (19.9%). Cigarette advertisements constitute only a small portion of their three 'popular' and three 'unpopular' advertisements. There were 47 students (24.7%) who listed at least one indirect cigarette advertisement as being one of their 'popular' advertisements. There were 75 students (39.5%) who listed at least one indirect cigarette advertisement as being one of their 'unpopular' advertisements. Five indirect cigarette advertisements screened over the local television were then shown to the students. The majority of the students responded that the advertisements were advertising non-cigarette products. However, 20.3% of the responses claimed the advertisements were promoting cigarettes. Our findings highlight the need to consider a complete ban on all forms of cigarette advertisement so that there will be less influence on adolescents to start and continue smoking.