Up until 1970, cigarettes had been advertised like other consumer products, but health concerns led to a government-imposed ban on broadcast advertising. More recent announcements from the Surgeon General have stated that smoking is not only harmful to one's health but also addictive. This combination of factors has spurred antismoking activists to call for a complete ban on cigarette advertising.

Tobacco companies have responded by claiming that cigarette ads do not create primary demand or encourage increased smoking. These companies also argue that a total ban on cigarette advertising would be unconstitutional.

A good deal of research has been done on the effects of cigarette adv

Aitken & Eadie (1990) interviewed 848 11- to 14-year-olds in Glasgow, Scotland, to learn their awareness and appreciation of cigarette ads and to determine the reinforcing effects of those ads on children. The authors found that 7% of the subjects were smokers while 67% of them had never smoked. Nine percent could name a cigarette ad they liked; 18% were able to name a cigarette ad they disliked. Boys and smokers had less negative perceptions of cigarette ads. Older subjects and smokers were more able to recognize cigarette ads, even when copy was missing or distorted.

The majority of statistical studies found that ads were non-significant factors in increasing cigarette consumption. All of the studies that included price of cigarettes and personal income as variables found them to be the most and only significant factors to affect consumption. Of the investigations that did find ads to be significant, all were not significant over the long term, and none described the type or type of ads. If the ads emphasized price, the price of cigarettes could be the significant influence as opposed to the ad itself.

Based on the results of these studies, there is no compelling evidence to support claims that cigarette advertising encourages people to take up smoking.

Several studies found that consumers were willing to pay more for advertised cigarette brands. Yasin (1995) discovered that smokers would pay 21% more for the advertised brands than the generic store brands.

Yasin (1995) examined the effects of advertising on a variety of fast-moving consumer goods, including cigarettes, in England from 1986 to 1993. For cigarettes, the author found an advertising-to-sales ratio of 62% but market growth of only 4.3%. Every study that included the price of cigarettes and personal income as independent variables found them to be the most influential factors affecting sales. An increase in the price of cigarettes always resulted in decreased consumption while an increase in personal income always resulted in increased consumption.

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