Taking a Page From 'Big Tobacco' Companies

A study done by the researchers at West Virginia University shows that fighting fire with fire will work when you’re talking about marketing to teens. On the premise that tobacco companies know how to market to the younger generation, the researchers decided to study teens who were already addicted smokers to see what were the best ways to help them to quit and why they continued to smoke even when they want to quit. Here are a couple of points in their study’s findings:

• Highlighted "which teen smokers join the program, also will help researchers understand who is not joining. It is important to come up with ways to better entice those missing teens to show up".
• There is now "strong evidence to show that teens get addicted – quickly".
• Teens who volunteer for quitting programs, like the N-O-T program who put out this study, "believe quitting is a good idea, but they aren’t fully confident they’ll be able to kick the tobacco habit."

The study also found that parental support to quit was lower than the support the teens receive from friends. One problem with this number in my mine’s eye: Did these parents smoke or not? In reading the abstract of the study, it seems to be a mixture of both. I would think that the number should be looked at again and that distinction should be made before the blanket statement can be proven. Or at least it should be noted that this distinction wasn’t made. Feel the same? The link to send some feedback is at the top right of this page.

What are your thoughts on the study? Do you think it will help more teens quit? Share in our comments area.

Suggested Reading:

• 5 Truths About Teen Smoking
• Screening Quiz: Is your teen smoking?
• Teen Smoking: What Can Parents Do?