Problem/Objective: Retail cigarette advertising and promotions is the primary medium cigarette companies use to reach their customers. Cigarette companies dedicated nearly 90% of the more than $15 billion spent on marketing and promotion towards retail channels in 2003. Despite the importance of retail advertising, there has been no research into differences between the levels of retail chain and non-retail chain advertising and promotions.

Methods: Data is from the New York Retail Advertising Tobacco Survey (RATS). Trained observers recorded data on interior and exterior cigarette advertising, price, and point-of-purchase promotions in a random sample of nearly 5,500 licensed tobacco retailers in New York. Data was collected in most months from November 2004 through June 2006. Regression analyses tested for significant differences in cigarette advertising and promotion levels between retail chains and non-chains over time and by geographic area.

Results: Retail chains have significantly more interior and exterior ads than non-chain stores (4.9 and 0.6 more ads, respectively). A retail chain store is 11.4% less likely to have no exterior ads and 53.2% more likely to have a promotion than a non-chain store.

Conclusions: Corporate agreements with cigarette companies may affect the level of advertising within retail chain stores compared to non-chain stores. This suggests that interventions directed at retail stores may be more successful with independent stores than with chain stores. For chain stores, the most promising approach may be to contact the corporate leadership directly.