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. 2018 May;4(3):79-87.
doi: 10.18001/TRS.4.3.7.

Warning Size Affects What Adolescents Recall From Tobacco Advertisements

Abigail T Evans  1 , Ellen Peters  2 , Brittney Keller-Hamilton  3 , Christopher Loiewski  4 , Michael D Slater  5 , Bo Lu  6 , Megan E Roberts  7 , Amy K Ferketich  6
Affiliations

Warning Size Affects What Adolescents Recall From Tobacco Advertisements

Abigail T Evans et al. Tob Regul Sci. 2018 May.

Abstract

Objectives: In the U.S., print advertisements for smokeless tobacco (SLT) feature a large black-and-white text warning covering 20% of the advertisement space. Cigarette and e-cigarette advertisements feature a small warning covering approximately 4% of advertisement space. We explored how warning size affects adolescent boys' spontaneous recollection of the warning, brand-relevant advertisement features, and product risks.

Methods: 1,220 adolescent males (ages 11-16) viewed SLT, cigarette, and e-cigarette advertisements. After each advertisement, boys were asked to recall what they remembered most. Coders identified recalls of the warning label, brand-relevant advertisement features, and risks associated with the product in responses.

Results: Participants were less likely to recall warnings in the cigarette vs. SLT (OR=0.30, p<0.001) and e-cigarette vs. SLT (OR=0.15, p<0.001) ads. Separate GEEs revealed that boys who recalled warnings were less likely to mention brand-relevant advertisement features (OR's<0.32, p's<0.001). Logistic regressions revealed that boys who recalled the warnings were more likely to mention risks associated with the products (OR's>3.50, p's<0.001).

Conclusions: Youth are more likely to recall large SLT warnings than small cigarette and e-cigarette warnings. Warning recall is associated with lower likelihood of recalling brand-relevant advertisement features and greater likelihood of mentioning product risks.

Keywords: advertising; marketing; warning labels; youth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
De-identified example tobacco product advertisements used in the current research. Left is a smokeless tobacco advertisement, center is a cigarette advertisement, and right is an e-cigarette advertisement. Warning text is original to the ads. Actual ads can not be published due to copyright laws, but are available to interested individuals from the corresponding author.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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