Advertisements for tobacco products do persuade teenagers to start smoking, new research has found.

According to the findings from Germany, the risk of taking up smoking jumps by almost 40% for every 10 ads seen.

The study involved more than 1,300 young people aged between 10 and 15. All were non-smokers at the start of the study and their exposure to tobacco ads and subsequent smoking behaviour were then monitored for two-and-a-half years.

The children, who attended 21 different schools, were asked about particular ads they had seen, including ones for six popular tobacco brands, as well as ads for other products such as clothes, cars and mobile phones.

After two-and-a-half years, one in three said that they had tried out smoking, while one in 10 said they had smoked during the previous month. One in 20 were determined to be ‘established' smokers, while a similar number smoked every single day.

The researchers found that when it came to smoking, the biggest influencing factor in a teenager's life was whether their peers smoked. However, this was closely followed by exposure to advertisements.

Furthermore, the greater the exposure to tobacco advertisements, the greater the chance the young person would take up smoking. Those who saw the most ads were twice as likely to become established smokers as those who saw the fewest ads.

Meanwhile, for each additional 10 ads seen, the young people were 38% more likely to become established smokers and 30% more likely to be daily smokers.

The researchers from the Institute for Therapy and Health Research in Kiel said that their findings support the total ban on tobacco advertising advocated by the World Health Organisation.

"Data from this study support this measure because only exposure to tobacco advertisements predicted smoking initiation, which cannot be attributed to a general receptiveness to marketing," they commented.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, BMJ Open.