The discrepancies between e-cigarette sales data and the prevalence of e-cigarette use from surveys highlight the challenges in tracking and understanding the use of new and emerging tobacco products. In a rapidly changing media environment, where successful and influential marketing campaigns can be conducted on social media at little cost, marketing expenditures alone may not fully capture the influence, reach and engagement of tobacco marketing.

BackgroundRapid increases in marketing of e-cigarettes coincide with growth in e-cigarette use in recent years; however, little is known about how e-cigarettes are marketed on social media platforms.MethodsKeywords were used to collect tweets related to e-cigarettes from the Twitter Firehose between 1 May 2012 and 30 June 2012. Tweets were coded for smoking cessation mentions, as well as health and safety mentions, and were classified as commercial or non-commercial (‘organic’) tweets using a combination of Naïve Bayes machine learning methods, keyword algorithms and human coding. Metadata associated with each tweet were used to examine the characteristics of accounts tweeting about e-cigarettes.Results73 672 tweets related to e-cigarettes were captured in the study period, 90% of which were classified as commercial tweets. Accounts tweeting commercial e-cigarette content were associated with lower Klout scores, a measure of influence. Commercial tweeting was largely driven by a small group of highly active accounts, and 94% of commercial tweets included links to websites, many of which sell or promote e-cigarettes. Approximately 10% of commercial and organic tweets mentioned smoking cessation, and 34% of commercial tweets included mentions of prices or discounts for e-cigarettes.ConclusionsTwitter appears to be an important marketing platform for e-cigarettes. Tweets related to e-cigarettes were overwhelmingly commercial, and a substantial proportion mentioned smoking cessation. E-cigarette marketing on Twitter may have public health implications. Continued surveillance of e-cigarette marketing on social media platforms is needed.

The overwhelming majority of food-product advertisements seen on television by American children and adolescents are of poor nutritional content.

Objective: To examine the trends in food advertising seen by American children and adolescents. Design: Trend analysis of children's and adolescents' exposure to food advertising in 2003, 2005, and 2007, including separate analyses by race. Participants: Children aged 2 to 5 years and 6 to 11 years and adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. Main Exposure: Television ratings. Main Outcome Measures: Exposure to total food advertising and advertising by food category. Results: Between 2003 and 2007 daily average exposure to food ads fell by 13.7% and 3.7% among young children aged 2 to 5 and 6 to 11 years, respectively, but increased by 3.7% among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. Exposure to sweets ads fell 41%, 29.3%, and 12.1%, respectively, for 2-to 5-, 6-to 11-, and 12-to 17-year-olds and beverage ads were down by about 27% to 30% across these age groups, with substantial decreases in exposure to ads for the most heavily advertised sugarsweetened beverages-fruit drinks and regular soft drinks. Exposure to fast food ads increased by 4.7%, 12.2%, and 20.4% among children aged 2 to 5, 6 to 11, and 12 to 17 years, respectively, between 2003 and 2007. The racial gap in exposure to food advertising grew between 2003 and 2007, particularly for fast food ads. Conclusions: A number of positive changes have occurred in children's exposure to food advertising. Continued monitoring of food advertising exposure along with nutritional analyses is needed to further assess selfregulatory pledges.