Electronic Cigarette Marketing Online: a Multi-Site, Multi-Product Comparison

Chu, Kar-Hai; Sidhu, Anupreet; Valente, Thomas W.

doi:10.2196/publichealth.4777

Cited by 32 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are common places to find advertisements, information, and content on e-cigarettes (Chu, Sidhu, & Valente, 2015; Kim et al, 2015; Link, Cawkwell, Shelley, & Sherman, 2015; Luo, Zheng, Zeng, & Leischow, 2014). Nearly 90% of young adults use at least one social media platform (Perrin, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Association Between E-Cigarette Use and Exposure to Social Media in College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Sawdey

Hancock

Messner

et al. 2017

Substance Use & Misuse

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Background: Social media platforms provide an indirect medium for encouraging e-cigarette use between individuals and also serve as a direct marketing tool from e-cigarette brands to potential users. E-cigarette users share information via social media that often contains product details or health-related claims. Objective: Determine whether e-cigarette use is associated with exposure to e-cigarettes on social media in college students. Methods: Data from a sample of 258 college students was obtained via a clicker-response questionnaire (90% response rate). Demographic, lifetime and current e-cigarette/cigarette use, and e-cigarette exposure via social media (peer posts or advertisements) were examined. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between lifetime and current e-cigarette use and viewing peer posts or advertisements on social media while adjusting for cigarette use and self-posting about e-cigarettes. Results: Overall, 46% of participants reported lifetime e-cigarette use, 16% current e-cigarette use, and 7% were current dual users of e-cigarettes and cigarettes. There were positive and significant associations between lifetime e-cigarette use and viewing peer posts (aOR=3.11; 95% CI =1.25–7.76) as well as advertisements (aOR=3.01; 95% CI =1.19–7.65) on e-cigarettes via social media after adjusting for cigarette use. Current e-cigarette use was only significantly associated with viewing peer posts via social media (aOR=7.58; 95% CI =1.66–34.6) after adjusting for cigarette use. Conclusions/Importance: Almost half of college students view peer posts and advertisements on e-cigarettes via social media. This exposure is associated with individual e-cigarette use. Continued efforts to examine online e-cigarette content are needed to help future interventions decrease e-cigarette use.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Association Between E-Cigarette Use and Exposure to Social Media in College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Sawdey

Hancock

Messner

et al. 2017

Substance Use & Misuse

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Prior research has consistently found that individuals are exposed to, search for, and share information about e-cigarettes on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, among others [14-17]. Interestingly, e-cigarette users are “more likely to be exposed to e-cigarette information via TV viewing sites (eg, Hulu), Twitter, Facebook, email, and Internet search engines” than nonusers [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

E-Cigarette Social Media Messages: A Text Mining Analysis of Marketing and Consumer Conversations on Twitter

Lazard¹,

Saffer²,

Wilcox³

et al. 2016

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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BackgroundAs the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) rises, social media likely influences public awareness and perception of this emerging tobacco product.ObjectiveThis study examined the public conversation on Twitter to determine overarching themes and insights for trending topics from commercial and consumer users.MethodsText mining uncovered key patterns and important topics for e-cigarettes on Twitter. SAS Text Miner 12.1 software (SAS Institute Inc) was used for descriptive text mining to reveal the primary topics from tweets collected from March 24, 2015, to July 3, 2015, using a Python script in conjunction with Twitter’s streaming application programming interface. A total of 18 keywords related to e-cigarettes were used and resulted in a total of 872,544 tweets that were sorted into overarching themes through a text topic node for tweets (126,127) and retweets (114,451) that represented more than 1% of the conversation.ResultsWhile some of the final themes were marketing-focused, many topics represented diverse proponent and user conversations that included discussion of policies, personal experiences, and the differentiation of e-cigarettes from traditional tobacco, often by pointing to the lack of evidence for the harm or risks of e-cigarettes or taking the position that e-cigarettes should be promoted as smoking cessation devices.ConclusionsThese findings reveal that unique, large-scale public conversations are occurring on Twitter alongside e-cigarette advertising and promotion. Proponents and users are turning to social media to share knowledge, experience, and questions about e-cigarette use. Future research should focus on these unique conversations to understand how they influence attitudes towards and use of e-cigarettes.

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“…For example, Baumann et al 21 observed that among hospitalised smokers, 13% of whites vs 6% of blacks had been exposed to online ENDS advertising. Other research indicates that ENDS companies have not been targeting racial/ethnic minority groups via online social networks 22. For example, Chu et al observed no difference in ENDS advertising on websites appealing to blacks during Black History Month 2…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The internet has been a particularly attractive advertising medium to ENDS vendors due to its low cost, unique technological features and precise segmentation of the target audience 2. The low cost is especially attractive to small vendors who have tremendous potential for expanding their marketing base.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking the content to demographic reach of online advertising of electronic nicotine delivery systems

et al. 2017

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Introduction Recent studies have separately examined the content and demographic reach of the advertising of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). No study to our knowledge has linked the two in investigating whether racial/ethnic groups are differentially exposed to the comparative messages conveyed in online ENDS advertisements. Methods 932 unique ENDS advertisements (6311 total), which were posted on 3435 websites between December, 2009 and October, 2015, were categorized as either comparative or non-comparative with respect to the traditional cigarette. The race/ethnicity of website visitors was obtained from a proprietary source and used in constructing variables for racial/ethnic viewership. The variables for advertising content and website racial/ethnic viewership were then linked yielding a final sample of 551 unique ENDS advertisements (2498 total) on 1206 websites. A two-level hierarchical generalized linear model, used in estimating website racial/ethnic viewership as a predictor of comparative advertising, accounted for the nesting of advertisements (level 1) within 152 ENDS brands (level 2). Results In contrast to racial/ethnic minorities, a greater proportion of non-Hispanic whites visited websites with ENDS advertisements than the overall proportion of nonHispanic white U.S. Internet users. Yet, it was the advertisements on websites that appealed to Hispanics that had greater odds of comparing ENDS to traditional cigarettes. Conclusions The lower exposure to ENDS advertising among racial/ethnic minorities versus non-Hispanic whites is consistent with survey data. Yet, the greater odds of comparative advertising of ENDS on websites that appeal to racial/ethnic minorities (ie, Hispanics) could impact the longterm health of minority smokers. Implications This study’s findings have important implications for the uptake of ENDS among minority smokers. If the comparative advertising yields greater interest and eventual use of ENDS, then minority smokers could either benefit from smoking cessation because they switch to ENDS, or adopt dual tobacco use. The fate of comparative advertising of ENDS versus the traditional cigarette will depend on the Food and Drug Administration enforcement of its deeming rules and the ensuing changes in the ENDS marketplace.

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Electronic Cigarette Marketing Online: a Multi-Site, Multi-Product Comparison

Cited by 32 publications

References 15 publications

Assessing the Association Between E-Cigarette Use and Exposure to Social Media in College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Assessing the Association Between E-Cigarette Use and Exposure to Social Media in College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

E-Cigarette Social Media Messages: A Text Mining Analysis of Marketing and Consumer Conversations on Twitter

Linking the content to demographic reach of online advertising of electronic nicotine delivery systems

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