Citing research that shows reduced exposure to advertising and promotions impedes persuasion, the American Psychological Association (APA) recommends that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employ a more comprehensive strategy to restrict the sale and distribution of cigarettes to minors, banning not only image-oriented advertising of cigarettes and tobacco products, but text-only advertising as well, in publications that are targeted primarily at youth.

In response to the FDA's call for comments on the proposed rule to restrict the sale and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to minors, the APA also maintains that there are strong and compelling reasons for implementing laws and regulations to prevent tobacco use by minors in the United States. APA found the Synar Amendment (which requires states to prohibit the sale of tobacco to minors, implement programs that ensure merchant compliance with the law and demonstrate compliance with the law) to be a viable approach to ensuring the enforcement of the proposed regulations.

The recommendations put forth by the APA confirm that psychological research needs to play a role in the fight against tobacco use by minors. Understanding and changing behavior will be the key to success and psychologists have that key, said Leonard Jason, Ph.D., who is a professor of clinical and community psychology at DePaul University.

To accomplish the goal of reducing tobacco use by youth by one-half within seven years of the rule's final publication, the APA made recommendations on the policy, on the design of the anti-tobacco campaign and on the labeling and advertising restrictions.

Recommendations on the proposed rule include:

• Stipulating that the maximum number of cigarettes per pack be 20, because research shows that packs with fewer cigarettes appeal to younger children and packs with more than 20 cigarettes appeal to older children;
• Combining school programs and anti-smoking advertising to reduce the rates of smoking among people under age 18;
• Focusing on resistance to peer influence and short-term negative consequences of tobacco use to maximize effectiveness.

Recommendations on the design of the anti-tobacco ads include:

• Providing counterarguments to the points and inducements highlighted in tobacco ads;
• Avoiding scare tactics such as images of severe health problems and death, because research found that teenagers see themselves as invulnerable to such consequences;
• Portraying tobacco users as different from the target audience (of the ads) and tobacco users as similar to the target audience;
• Refraining from describing teenage tobacco use as a widespread national problem, as do so normalizes the behavior for teens.
  

Recommendations on labeling and advertising include:

• Banning text-only ads in publications that primarily target youth;
• Requiring a listing of component parts or ingredients in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in advertisements of tobacco products;
• Requiring manufacturers to provide information describing the range of possible human exposures to nicotine via cigarette delivery;
• Considering the effect that pictures, such as a damaged lung, may have on labeling.
  

The APA further recommended that the tobacco industry have no involvement in the public education program and that cigarette labels should describe a range of possible human exposures to nicotine as well as information about several major toxins present in smoke rather than only list the content ratings.

5/29/98

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 159,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 50 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 58 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.