title: Exposure to anti- and pro-tobacco advertising, promotions or sponsorships: Turkey, 2008.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2008, Turkey became one of 26 countries with a complete ban on all forms of direct and indirect tobacco marketing. We assessed the level of exposure to anti- and pro-cigarette advertising and to cigarette promotions and sponsorships among various demographic groups in Turkey.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used the data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), conducted in November 2008 in Turkey. The data consist of answers to GATS questions by 9030 respondents from a nationally representative, multistage probability sample of adults 15 years of age or older. To find differences in exposure to the advertising by sex, age, education level and smoking status, we analyzed responses to GATS questions about cigarette advertisements and anti-cigarette smoking information in various forms and through various advertising channels, during the 30 days before the survey, using bivariate analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 13.3% of respondents aged 15 years or older noticed some type of cigarette marketing during the 30 days before the survey: 7.1% saw advertisements, 5.3% saw promotions and 3.3% saw sports sponsorships. Men were more likely than women to have seen cigarette promotions (7.8% versus 3.0%) and sports sponsorships (5.3% versus 1.4%). Respondents aged 15-24 years were more likely than those aged 25 years or older to have seen cigarette advertisements (10.2% versus 6.2%), promotions (8.7% versus 4.4%) and sponsorships (6.6% versus 2.3%), respectively. Respondents were most likely to have seen cigarette advertisements on television (3.4%) or in shops (2.7%). In addition, 2.8% of respondents reported seeing a clothing item with a brand name or logo, 2.5% reported that they received free samples of cigarettes and 0.3% received gifts along with the purchase of cigarettes. Almost 9 of 10 survey respondents (88.8%) reported having noticed some anti-cigarette information during the 30 days before the survey. Most anti-cigarette information was seen on television (85.5%). The anti-cigarette information was seen by slightly more cigarette smokers (91.6%) than nonsmokers (87.6%). Persons with less than a primary education were less likely to notice anti-cigarette information than those with a higher level of education, in all examined media channels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings showed a low prevalence of noticing cigarette marketing, which indicates high compliance with the Turkish law banning such marketing. GATS data provide an in-depth understanding of the level of exposure to pro- and anti-cigarette information in 2008 and they are of practical assistance to those who implement policies to reduce the demand for tobacco. The challenge now is to maintain rigorous enforcement. To do so requires ongoing surveillance to produce data on the effectiveness of the enforcement efforts.
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization (WHO), Ankara, Turkey ErguderT@euro.who.int.
authors.forename: Toker
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Erguder
authors.affiliation: University of Hacettepe, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nazmi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bilir
authors.affiliation: University of Hacettepe, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hilal
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Özcebe
authors.affiliation: Turkish Ministry of Health, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Irmak
authors.affiliation: Turkish Statistical Institute, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Enver
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tasti
authors.affiliation: Turkish Ministry of Health, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hüseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: İlter
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Krishna M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Palipudi
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Linda J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Andes
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Samira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Asma
authors.affiliation: Regional Office for Europe, WHO, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Rula N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Khoury
authors.affiliation: CDC Foundation, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Talley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising / Q000145:classification* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D040541:Marketing / Q000145:classification* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019460:Tobacco Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014421:Turkey; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Advertisement; Global Adult Tobacco Survey; Turkey; antismoking messages; cigarette marketing; media; policy; tobacco; tobacco control