CNN news 2010-03-17 加文本

2010-03-17 cnn

So did a cigarette ad target young girls? The tobacco company says no, but pediatricians say, hold on, not so fast. The numbers show a link between the ad and girls lighting up. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here with that story. And of course, it has got a lot of parents pretty worried.

ELIZABETH COHEN, cnn SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it does. Because you know, cigarette companies were supposed to stop advertising to underage smokers, underage girls and boys, like in 1998 and now there are some concerns that they didn't actually keep that pledge. Take a look at this ad. This ran around 2007 in various women's magazines like "Vogue", "Cosmopolitan" and even though I say women's magazines, certainly teenage girls wear it as well. So you can see Camel number nine cigarettes placed next to that's actually part of the ad there with the dress and the stilettos and it's telling women and girls, if you're a girl reading it, how to dress up.

And so what these researchers did was that they asked girls a very specific question about cigarette ads both before and after this campaign. So take a look at this. The numbers are quite telling. They asked the question, what is the name of the cigarette brand of your favorite cigarette advertisement. That's the question.

In 2004, 10 percent of girls chose Camel. Then, the ad campaign was launched in 2007. In 2008, 22 percent of girls chose Camel. So the researchers came to the conclusion it looks like that ad campaign worked. Now we went to RJ Reynolds for a response. And here's what they had to say, they say - R.J. Reynolds adheres to numerous restrictions on how it markets its tobacco products and does not take any action to target youth. Camel number nine was developed in response to female adult smokers who are asking for a product that better reflected their taste preferences and style."

And Kyra, the reason why doctors care about this is that it's been shown that if a girl can name a brand in their favorite advertisement - if they can say, "oh, yes, my favorite advertisement, it was for Camel." They have a much, much higher chance of starting to smoke in the next couple of years because it’s kind of registered in their head, you know, this is my brand. This is the brand I like.