Abstract

The Effects of Cigarette Company's Corporate Advertising on Corporate Attitude and Cognitive Responses to Smoking

Hyongoh Cho, Ph.D.
Associate Professor,Dept. of Advertising and PR, Dongguk University

This study investigated how corporate advertising of cigarette company would affect one's corporate attitude and cognitive responses to smoking. A field survey was conducted to compare corporate attitude, smoking beliefs, smoking attitude, and smoking intention between two groups. Here, one group was composed of individuals exposed to KT&G commercials more than once in the last 2 years, and the other group composed of individuals never exposed to KT&G commercials in the last 2 years. Also, the cognitive responses to KT&G commercials were examined by a structural equation model. Results indicate that those exposed to KT&G commercials demonstrated more favorable scores in their corporate attitude, psychological and social smoking beliefs, smoking attitude and smoking intention than those not exposed to KT&G commercials. The effects of cigarette company advertising were manifested via the route of ad attitude, corporate attitude, psychological and social smoking beliefs, smoking attitude, and smoking intention in sequences. The overall effects of cigarette company advertising were not different between teenagers and adults. Therefore, it can be concluded that corporate advertising of cigarette company exerts a significant effect on smoking responses equivalent to that of cigarette advertising itself, and governmental action needs to be elaborated in order to restrain cigarette company's corporate advertising.

Key Word : tobacco company, corporate advertising, cigarette advertising regulation, smoking responses