Children's awareness of cigarette brand sponsorship of sports and games in the UK

This study explores children's awareness of cigarette brand sponsorship of sporting events in the UK. Individual interviews were conducted with 726 children aged between 6 and 17 in Glasgow, UK. The findings indicate that the majority of children have some understanding of the meaning of ‘sponsorship’ by the late primary/early secondary years. About a third of the 10-and 11-year-olds and more than half of the secondary school children were able to name cigarette brands and sponsored sports. The brands and sports most frequently mentioned were John Player Special and motor racing, Embassay and snooker, Benson and Hedges and snooker, Marlboro and motor racing. Only 9% of the primary school children named Marlboro or John Player Special as sponsoring motor racing. Nevertheless, 47% of them pointed to advertisements for these brands (which did not refer to motor racing) as being liked by ‘someone who likes excitement and fast racing cars’. This suggests that associations between brand names (or their visual cues) and exciting sports can be elicited by simple advertisements. That such associations can be elicited even in children of primary school age is a cause for concern. There were no significant differences between smokers and non-smokers in their awareness of brand sponsorship. This probably reflects the all-pervasive nature of cigarette sponsorship of sports and games.