Several decades ago children could recognize easily Joe Camel as they recognized Mickey Mouse. Kid's ability to recognize cigarette brands appears to be worldwide.

A recent research reveals that more than half of young children in six different countries recognized at least 1 of 8 cigarette brands. The children surveyed were 5 and 6 years old. Kids living with a smoker were more likely to recognize brands. The authors of the report said that children's awareness of tobacco marketing has been connected to a higher likelihood of their starting to smoke.
The study, conducted by Dina Borzekowski, EdD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, looked at how well kids across the world recognized tobacco brands.

In the research participated 2,423 children, aged 5 and 6, in six different low- and middle-income countries: Nigeria, China, Brazil, India, Pakistan and Russia.

The kids were given tasks to match logos of different commercial brand logos with products. Among the logos they were 8 cigarette brand logos.The researchers analyzed the results in terms of the kid's ages, gender and location.

The researchers looked at whether the kids lived with a smoker in the home and whether they knew which media characters were connected with certain cigarette brand logos. Across the entire group, 68% of the children identified at least one cigarette brand logo.

The country with the highest level of recognition was China, where 86% of the kids identified at least one cigarette brand logo.
Among the Chinese children surveyed, 71% of them lived with a smoker, and 12% of them had a parent who smoked.
Russian children had the lowest level of recognition; 50% of the kids recognized at least one cigarette brand. In Russia, 46% of the children lived with a smoker, and 42% of them had a parent who smoked. Children who lived with a smoker were about twice as likely to recognize the brands than children who didn't live with a smoker.
Te older children were a little more likely to recognize cigarette brands than the younger children.

Although many factors are associated with tobacco use, research shows that exposure to, interest in, and positive attitudes about pro-tobacco marketing and media messages are associated with increased odds of youth liking smoking, early initiation and increased use.

Studies conducted that in the entire world kids with high exposure and awareness levels to pro-tobacco messaging, whether through advertising, point-of-sale displays, depictions in movies or promotional materials, are more likely to smoke cheap cigarettes. The study was published September 30 in the journal Pediatrics. The research was funded by the Institute for Global Tobacco Control and the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use.