Advertising
Exploring the Point-of-Sale Among Vape Shops Across the United States
Audits Integrating a Mystery Shopper Approach
https://academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ntr/ntaa041/5801058
Abstract
Introduction
Vape shops represent prominent, unique retailers, subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation in the United States.
Aims and Methods
This study assessed compliance of US vape shop retail marketing strategies with new regulations (eg, required age verification, prohibited free samples) and pre-implementation conditions for other regulations (eg, health warning labels on all nicotine products, required disclosures of e-liquid contents).
Results
95.0% of shops displayed minimum-age signage; however, mystery shoppers were asked for age verification at 35.6% upon entry and at 23.4% upon purchase. Although 85.5% of shops had some evidence of implementing FDA health warnings, 29.1% had signage indicating prohibited health claims, 16.3% offered free e-liquid samples, 27.4% had signage with cartoon imagery, and 33.3% were within two blocks of schools. All shops sold open-system devices, 64.8% sold closed-system devices, 68.2% sold their own brand of e-liquids, 42.5% sold e-liquids containing cannabidiol, 83.2% offered price promotions of some kind, and 89.9% had signage for product and price promotions.
Conclusions
Results indicated that most shops complied with some implementation of FDA health warnings and with free sampling bans and minimum-age signage. Other findings indicated concerns related to underage access, health claims, promotional strategies, and cannabidiol product offerings, which call for further FDA and state regulatory/enforcement efforts.
Online Pro-Tobacco Marketing Exposure Is Associated With Dual Tobacco Product Use Among Underage US Students
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0890117120905231
Abstract
Purpose:
To understand the effect of pro-tobacco marketing on electronic cigarette and combustible cigarette dual use among US middle and high school students under 18 years of age.
Design:
Data were derived from the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey, an annual self-administered school-based cross-sectional survey.
Setting:
The survey was administered in public and private middle and high schools across the United States.
Participants:
The probability sample size was 15 238 middle and high school students with complete responses who were under 18 years of age during the study period.
Measures:
The study measured self-reported exposure to online combustible and electronic cigarette advertisements, dual use of combustible and electronic cigarettes during the past 30 days, exposure to the Real Cost antitobacco campaign advertisements, and other sociodemographic factors (eg, race/ethnicity, gender, and grade).
Analysis:
Logistic regressions were used to measure pro-tobacco marketing exposure and dual use as a function of pro-tobacco marketing exposure.
Results:
Descriptive analyses show that 59.0% of respondents were exposed to pro-tobacco online marketing, and 2.9% were dual users. Dual users (odds ratio [OR] = 1.73) and high school students (OR = 1.43) were more likely to report exposure to online pro-tobacco marketing.
Conclusions:
Findings indicate that a gap in electronic cigarette pro-tobacco marketing regulatory oversight may exist. Further policy action may be warranted to protect the public health of minors and other vulnerable populations who are most susceptible to pro-tobacco marketing.
New Zealand moves to ban vaping ads, sales to minors
(Reuters) – New Zealand’s government said on Sunday it will introduce laws banning all advertisements of e-cigarettes and the sale of such products to people under 18 in a move to regulate a market that has been under pressure globally.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newzealand-vaping/new-zealand-moves-to-ban-vaping-ads-sales-to-minors-idUSKCN20H00M
A string of vaping-related deaths and illnesses tied to e-cigarettes, which allow users to inhale nicotine vapor, often flavored, without smoking, have been reported in the United States, leading to lawsuits and restrictions.
The New Zealand bill, posted on the health ministry’s website, also seeks to ban e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in smoke-free areas, restrict who can sell them and give the government the powers to recall or suspend vaping products.
“We are making sure that we are protecting our kids but at the same time ensuring that smokers who want to use vaping as a quit tool still have access to those products,” Associate Health Minister Jeny Salesa told state-owned TVNZ.
Although the number of people smoking has steadily fallen in New Zealand, according to official data, nearly one in eight adults, or close to half a million people, are regular cigarette smokers.
The government said in the bill, which will be proposed to parliament on Monday, that it “acknowledges” that vaping and smokeless tobacco products are less harmful than smoking and the bill would exempt vaping products from some of the provisions that apply to tobacco products.
“(The bill) enables all retailers to display products in-store, in contrast to requirements that require tobacco products to be out of the public’s sight,” the government said.
In the United States, the Trump administration earlier this year banned some popular e-cigarette flavours to curb rising teenage use of vaping products, allowing only menthol and tobacco flavours to remain on the market.
The New Zealand government came short of prohibiting flavours, but the bill limits general stores, such as convenience outlets, to selling only three flavours: tobacco, mint and menthol.
“Flavors may be used to attract children and young people to vape or use smokeless tobacco products, however, they also seem to be an important factor in supporting smokers to switch,” the government said in the bill.
How e-cigarette ads might sway teens to try tobacco products
When non-smoking teens see ads for e-cigarettes, and are curious about the products advertised, perhaps even identifying with a favorite brand, they might also be more susceptible to taking up cigarettes, a new study finds.
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-how-e-cigarette-ads-might-sway-teens-to-try-tobacco-products-2017-5?IR=T
For the study, researchers showed a nationally representative sample of 10,751 U.S. teens advertisements for a wide variety of tobacco products including traditional cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and e-cigarettes. Overall, the teens were more receptive to ads for e-cigarettes than other products and television ads were most likely to prompt brand recall.
“The imagery used by tobacco companies focuses on the aspirations of young people including having fun, being independent, sophisticated, socially accepted, popular, etc.,” said lead study author John Pierce of the University of California, San Diego.
“Those who have an emotive response to these aspirational images are more likely to see use of the product as a way to achieve their aspirations,” Pierce said by email. “It is hypothesized that in adolescents who are committed never smokers, recall of tobacco product advertising will be associated with first movement toward product use within a one-year time frame.”
Big U.S. tobacco companies are all developing e-cigarettes, battery-powered gadgets with a heating element that turns liquid nicotine and flavorings into a cloud of vapor that users inhale.
For the past decade, public health experts have debated whether the devices might help with smoking cessation or at least be a safer alternative to smoking traditional combustible cigarettes, or whether they might lure a new generation into nicotine addiction.
Fewer teens smoke today than a generation ago, but declines in traditional cigarette use have stalled and e-cigarettes have become increasingly popular in recent years. As of 2015, an estimated 16 percent of U.S. high school students used e-cigarettes, compared with about 9 percent for traditional cigarettes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While television ads for traditional cigarettes have been illegal in the U.S. for decades, e-cigarette ads are currently allowed on TV, researchers note in Pediatrics.
In the study, Pierce and his colleagues examined how receptive or curious non-smoking teens were about different tobacco products and whether they had a favorite image or advertisement. They also looked at how susceptible the adolescents might be to trying tobacco products based on their ability to recall specific brands they saw in the ads.
The researchers showed each study participant a random selection of five ads each for cigarettes, e-cigarettes smokeless tobacco and cigars based on 959 different promotions that had recently been used to advertise these products.
Overall, 41 percent of the younger teens in the study and half of older adolescents were receptive to at least one tobacco advertisement, the study found.
Across each age group, teens were most receptive to ads for e-cigarettes, followed by traditional cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.
E-cigarette ads shown on television had the highest recall.
Compared to teens in the study who were not at all receptive to the ads, youth who had the highest level of engagement with the promotions were more than six times more likely to be susceptible to trying tobacco products, the study found.
The study isn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how ads may directly influence tobacco use.
Another limitation is that researchers didn’t have data to show whether or not teens actually used tobacco products after viewing these ads, the authors note.
Even so, the findings suggest that non-cigarette ads for tobacco-related products may be damaging for adolescent health, Rebecca Collins of Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California, writes in an accompanying editorial.
“This study provides some very provocative data suggesting that the marketing of e-cigarettes, which is not regulated, might be leading to cigarette smoking among teens,” Collins said by email.