Exposure to Electronic Cigarette Television Advertisements Among Youth and Young Adults

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration does not regulate electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) marketing unless it is advertised as a smoking cessation aid. To date, the extent to which youth and young adults are exposed to e-cigarette television advertisements is unknown. The objective of this study was to analyze trends in youth and young adult exposure to e-cigarette television advertisements in the United States. METHODS Nielsen data on television household audiences’ exposure to e-cigarette advertising across US markets were examined by calendar quarter, year, and sponsor. RESULTS Youth exposure to television e-cigarette advertisements, measured by target rating points, increased 256% from 2011 to 2013. Young adult exposure increased 321% over the same period. More than 76% of all youth e-cigarette advertising exposure occurred on cable networks and was driven primarily by an advertising campaign for 1 e-cigarette brand. CONCLUSIONS E-cigarette companies currently advertise their products to a broad audience that includes 24 million youth. The dramatic increase in youth and young adult television exposure between 2011 and 2013 was driven primarily by a large advertising campaign on national cable networks. In the absence of evidencebased public health messaging, the current e-cigarette television advertising may be promoting beliefs and behaviors that pose harm to the public health. If current trends in e-cigarette television advertising continue, awareness and use of e-cigarettes are likely to increase among youth and young adults.

Fear vs humor appeals: a comparative study of children's responses to anti-smoking advertisements

“…The strategies employed to make cigarettes and e-cigarettes attractive are similar and range from using celebrity endorsement, reducing prices and sponsoring sport events to using claims related to sexual themes, increase of the social status and customer satisfaction (HHS, 2012(HHS, , 2016. In addition, e-cigarette advertisements contain health-related themes, encouraging the idea that these devices can help people to reduce cigarette use (Duke et al, 2014), but currently, there is no evidence to recommend e-cigarettes as an effective method for quitting smoking (Kalkhoran and Glantz, 2016;OSSFAD, 2016).…”