Increased attention to the tobacco power wall predicts increased smoking risk among adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of this correlational study was to evaluate the association between attention paid by adolescents to the tobacco power wall and their susceptibility to future smoking. The study was conducted in the RAND Store Lab (RSL), a life-sized replica of a convenience store designed to investigate how tobacco advertising displays in retail point-of-sale environments relate to tobacco use risk and behaviors. In this study, middle and high school students (N = 80) shopped in the RSL while their attention to the tobacco power wall was measured covertly. Before and after shopping in the RSL, participants completed a measure of susceptibility to smoking in the future. Controlling for baseline cigarette smoking susceptibility and other potential confounders, attention toward the tobacco power wall was found to be significantly associated with future smoking susceptibility, p = .046. This finding suggests that policies aimed at decreasing the prominence of power walls in retail outlets should be given careful consideration as ways to reduce the impact of point-of-sale tobacco advertising and promotion on youth smoking susceptibility.

Image Processing for Public Health Surveillance of Tobacco Point-of-Sale Advertising: Machine Learning–Based Methodology

“…In addition, our study considered location to be relative to each photograph, rather than in a defined geographic location within the POS. Although tobacco advertising tends to be consistent in the retail environment, such as in the commonly used Power Wall, value could be added by considering the purely geographic factor in future analyses [ 35 ].…”

Retail endgame strategies: reduce tobacco availability and visibility and promote health equity

“…Evidence from studies that manipulate exposure to tobacco displays in brick-and-mortar or online stores provides complementary evidence of the rationale for display bans. For example, youth exposed to tobacco ‘power walls’ were more likely to report smoking susceptibility and higher normative perceptions of smoking 79 80…”

The Reshaping of the E-Cigarette Retail Environment: Its Evolution and Public Health Concerns

“…The retail environment is a key driver of e-cigarette use [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Marketing aims to influence how and why consumers vape [ 28 ] (e.g., perceptions of safety or use for cessation of combustibles [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ], social use, to achieve a “buzz”, for entertainment [ 31 , 32 ]) and to attract new users, promote continued use, and shape perceptions of products and their use [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. This is particularly crucial for newer products, as the ways consumers are first exposed to a product is highly influential on short-term sales or gains [ 33 , 34 ].…”

“…These retail settings are important for several reasons. First, retail settings, including both brick-and-mortar and online, are a prominent, effective source of tobacco advertising in youth [ 24 , 25 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ] and adults [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Prior research showed that 68.6% of young adults reported past 30-day e-cigarette advertising/media exposure—most commonly seen on social media (43.4%) and at retailers (31.7%)—and e-cigarette advertising exposure was associated with e-cigarette use [ 45 ].…”