title: Out of the smokescreen II: will an advertisement targeting the tobacco industry affect young people's perception of smoking in movies and their intention to smoke?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of an antismoking advertisement on young people's perceptions of smoking in movies and their intention to smoke.
  
  
  METHODS
  3091 cinema patrons aged 12-24 years in three Australian states; 18.6% of the sample (n = 575) were current smokers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Quasi-experimental study of patrons, surveyed after having viewed a movie. The control group was surveyed in week 1, and the intervention group in weeks 2 and 3. Before seeing the movie in weeks 2 and 3, a 30 s antismoking advertisement was shown, shot in the style of a movie trailer that warned patrons not to be sucked in by the smoking in the movie they were about to see.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Attitude of current smokers and non-smokers to smoking in the movies; intention of current smokers and non-smokers to smoke in 12 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among non-smokers, 47.8% of the intervention subjects thought that the smoking in the viewed movie was not OK compared with 43.8% of the control subjects (p = 0.04). However, there was no significant difference among smokers in the intervention (16.5%) and control (14.5%) groups (p = 0.4). A higher percentage of smokers in the intervention group indicated that they were likely to be smoking in 12 months time (38.6%) than smokers in the control group (25.6%; p<0.001). For non-smokers, there was no significant difference in smoking intentions between groups, with 1.2% of intervention subjects and 1.6% of controls saying that they would probably be smoking in 12 months time (p = 0.54).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This real-world study suggests that placing an antismoking advertisement before movies containing smoking scenes can help to immunise non-smokers against the influences of film stars' smoking. Caution must be exercised in the type of advertisement screened as some types of advertising may reinforce smokers' intentions to smoke.
authors.affiliation: Central Coast Health Promotion Unit, Northern Sydney Central Coast Health, PO Box 361, Gosford, NSW 2250, Australia. cedwards@nsccahs.health.nsw.gov.au
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Oakes
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bull
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000329:Advertising; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009040:Motion Pictures; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention