Animated mascots draw youth appeal

Two studies reveal that the marketing strategies employed by alcohol and cigarette manufacturers greatly influence minors to smoke and drink, reports The New York Times.
A study by the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found in-store advertising increases the chances that high school students will take up smoking.

Advertising convinces kids to try smoking while promotional pricecuts make the bad new habits stick. The study suggests that if in-store ads were dropped, an 11 percent decrease would result in youth who try smoking. Thereafter, discouraging pricecuts would decrease habitual smokers by 13 percent.
The study surveyed 26,000 students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades from 1999 to 2003.
A second online study by the Journal of Adolescent Health polled 1,768 South Dakotan sixth graders and found that those exposed to alcohol marketing - usually found on promotional hats, posters or T-shirts - were twice as likely to drink than those without.