PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Peruga, Armando
AU  - Urrejola, Oscar
AU  - Delgado, Iris
AU  - Matute, Isabel
AU  - Castillo-Laborde, Carla
AU  - Molina, Xaviera
AU  - Hirmas, Macarena
AU  - Olea, Andrea
AU  - González, Claudia
AU  - Aguilera, Ximena
AU  - Sargent, James D
TI  - Exposure of 4-year to 24-year olds to tobacco imagery on prime-time Chilean television
AID  - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056735
DP  - 2023 May 01
TA  - Tobacco Control
PG  - 323--329
VI  - 32
IP  - 3
4099  - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/32/3/323.short
4100  - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/32/3/323.full
SO  - Tob Control2023 May 01; 32
AB  - Introduction The extent of the population’s exposure to tobacco imagery across all genres of regular TV programming and the contribution of each of these genres is unknown, except for UK broadcast channels. The objective of this study is to estimate the exposure of young people to tobacco imagery on Chilean prime-time television and the programme source contributing to such exposure.Methods Programmes aired during 3 weeks in 2019 from the 15 highest audience channels in Chile were content-analysed for the occurrence of tobacco categorised as actual use, implied use, tobacco paraphernalia, tobacco brand appearances and whether they violated Chilean smoke-free law for each 1 min interval (92 639). The exposure of young people to tobacco content was estimated using media viewership figures.Results Young people received 29, 11 and 4 million tobacco impressions of any type, explicit use and smoke-free violation, respectively, at a rate of 21.8, 8.0 and 2.1 thousand impressions per hour of TV viewing. The main sources of exposure to tobacco impressions were feature films and animated productions, which were almost entirely non-Chilean. Finally, young people were exposed to tobacco brand impressions primarily through films, effectively circumventing the advertising ban in Chile.Discussion Television programming is a source of significant youth exposure to tobacco imagery, including branding impressions. To conform to the WHO FCTC, Chile should prohibit tobacco branding in any TV programme and require strong anti-tobacco advertisements prior to any TV programme portraying tobacco.Data are available on reasonable request. Data are available on request from the Centro de Epidemiología y Políticas de Salud of the Universidad del Desarrollo 3 years after the end of data collection (June 2019).