How do Adolescents Process Smoking and Antismoking Advertisements? A Social Cognitive Analysis with Implications for Understanding Smoking Initiation

Youth tobacco use has increased substantially in the United States during the past decade. This increase can be attributed, in part, to the potency of cigarette advertising and relative ineffectiveness of antismoking advertising. In this article, the authors argue that an understanding of the effects of these 2 competing forms of advertising on youth smoking is limited in current theoretical treatments and that an integrative theoretical perspective has yet to be advanced. The authors argue that the elaboration likelihood model (R.E. Petty & J.T. Cacioppo, 1986) offers a framework with sufficient explanatory power in this domain. Prevention and legislative interventions may benefit from this analysis, which ultimately may help to decrease youth tobacco use.