Audience: Cigarette companies spent over $15 billion on marketing and promotion in 2003, nearly 90% of which was directed at the retail channel, making it the most important medium for tobacco companies to reach their customers. In 2005, New York launched the Advertising, Sponsorship, and Promotions (ASP) Initiative, in part to monitor and address retail advertising and promotions for cigarettes. In this 90-minute panel presentation, we will discuss four activities undertaken as part of ASP.

Learning Objectives: Four studies will be presented: (1) The Retail Advertising Tobacco Survey, which monitors retail cigarette advertising and promotions in 5,500 licensed tobacco retailers in New York; (2) The New York State Cigarette Retailers Survey, in which 674 cigarette retailers were interviewed about promotional practices and other topics; (3)-(4) Two community partners will discuss opportunities and challenges in implementing interventions with retailers to reduce cigarette marketing.

Key Points: 95% of retailers display interior cigarette advertisements; 53% display exterior advertisements; 69% offer promotions. There are significant differences across retail channels, with smaller differences by geographic area. 69% of retailers participate in a tobacco company incentive program. Community partnerships have worked locally to reduce tobacco product advertising and promotion at retail. Using a variety of tools, from local zoning rules to community pressure, these community activists have had some limited success in reducing retail tobacco advertising.

Benefits: Cigarette advertising and promotion are widespread in New York. These results are a baseline assessment against which to measure future progress in reducing cigarette advertising and promotion in New York.