Frequency of contact with cigarette advertising and smoking experience among young women in Japan

Abstract

Cigarette advertising plays a crucial role in adolescent smoking. A survey with a selfadministered questionnaire was conducted to 198 female nursing students in Kitakyushu City in 1996 to provide primary data on the young women's contact with cigarette advertising in various media in Japan. The proportions of respondents who had seen cigarette advertising on TV and that on billboards were both over 95% of the effective respondents, the highest among all the media, followed by magazines, newspapers and the radio. The proportion of respondents who "frequently" had contacts was the highest by TV, followed by billboards, newspapers, magazines and radio. Over 50% of students who had past/current smoking experience felt that they were "frequently" exposed to cigarette advertising, and, on the other hand, approximately 50% of those who had never smoked felt that they "occasionally" saw cigarette advertising, on both TV and billboards. In Japan, young women seem to be heavily exposed to cigarette advertising through various media. This study implies that TV and billboards are the most frequently contacted media of cigarette advertising and perhaps the most influential to smoking among young people.