Phua, J.J., Jin, S.A., & Hahn, J.M. (2017). Celebrity-Endorsed E-cigarette Brand Instagram Advertisements: Effects on Young Adults’ Attitudes towards E-cigarettes and Smoking Intentions. Journal of Health Psychology, epub ahead of print 1 February 2017. doi: 10.1177/1359105317693912 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Health Psychology, 2017
Celebrities endorsing e-cigarette brands on social media may exert a strong influence on e-cigarette uptake. Using a between-subject experiment, this study examines the effects of endorser type (celebrities, noncelebrities and products only) in e-cigarette brand Instagram advertisements on e-cigarette attitudes and smoking intentions. Results showed that celebrity endorsers significantly increased positive attitudes towards e-cigarettes and smoking intentions, compared to non-celebrities or products only. Celebrity endorsers also rated significantly higher on trustworthiness, expertise, goodwill and attractiveness, compared to noncelebrities. Additionally, identification, social comparison, health consciousness and social networking site use moderated between endorser type and key dependent measures. Implications for e-cigarette marketing regulation are discussed.
Understanding consumer engagement with celebrity-endorsed E-Cigarette advertising on instagram
Computers in Human Behavior, 2018
Considering that e-cigarette use is often glamorized on social media through celebrity endorsements, this study examined the effects of product-celebrity image congruence, consumercelebrity risk-oriented image congruence, and parasocial identification on consumer engagement with celebrity-endorsed e-cigarette advertising on Instagram. Results indicated that high productcelebrity image congruence, and high consumer-celebrity risk-seeking image congruence, led to significantly more positive ad attitude and greater intention to spread eWOM and use ecigarettes. Consumer-celebrity risk-averse image congruency, meanwhile, led to significantly less favorable ad attitude and lower intention to spread eWOM and use e-cigarettes. Post-hoc analyses further suggested that smoking status and gender (match vs. mismatch between consumer and celebrity) had a significant influence on processing of, and consumer engagement with, e-cigarette Instagram ads. Additionally, parasocial identification moderated the effects of celebrity-product image congruence, and consumer-celebrity risk-oriented image congruence, on key engagement measures. Theoretical and managerial implications for researchers, marketers, and policy makers are discussed.
Computers in Human Behavior, 2018
Considering that e-cigarette use is often glamorized on social media through celebrity endorsements, this study examined the effects of product-celebrity image congruence, consumer-celebrity risk-oriented image congruence, and parasocial identification on consumer engagement with celebrity-endorsed e-cigarette advertising on Instagram. Results indicated that high product-celebrity image congruence, and high consumer-celebrity risk-seeking image congruence, led to significantly more positive ad attitude and greater intention to spread eWOM and use e-cigarettes. Consumer-celebrity risk-averse image congruency, meanwhile, led to significantly less favorable ad attitude and lower intention to spread eWOM and use e-cigarettes. Post-hoc analyses further suggested that smoking status and gender (match vs. mismatch between consumer and celebrity) had a significant influence on processing of, and consumer engagement with, e-cigarette Instagram ads. Additionally, parasocial identification moderated the effects of celebrity-product image congruence, and consumer-celebrity risk-oriented image congruence, on key engagement measures. Theoretical and managerial implications for researchers, marketers, and policy makers are discussed.
This study examined exposure to three types of e-cigarette marketing (sponsored ads, brand pages, user-created groups) on social networking sites, and their influence on health-related outcomes. Results (N=1016) indicated that e-cig users who joined user- created groups had significantly more negative attitudes towards quitting, lower behavioral control, intention to quit and self-efficacy, than those exposed to sponsored ads or following brand pages. Exposure to two or more types of marketing had an additive effect on health-related outcomes. Social identification, attention to social comparison and subjective norms also moderated between exposure to e-cig marketing and key dependent measures.
BMC Public Health, 2023
Background Evidence suggests that experimentation with e-cigarettes among young people is increasing. Social media is widely used by young people with user-generated content and influencer marketing particularly influential in promoting products. This paper documents a snapshot of online user-generated content and influencer marketing related to e-cigarettes on YouTube and Instagram. Methods Scoping review of relevant e-cigarette-related content on two social media platforms popular with youths, YouTube and Instagram, between June and August 2021. Content analysis was undertaken to examine text, audio, and video content, recording age restrictions, health warnings, page characteristics, and post characteristics. Narrative post content was coded using a coding frame that was developed inductively in response to emergent categories. Results Vaping was portrayed positively on social media; of the posts analysed, 86.5% (n = 90 of 104) of Instagram posts and 66.0% (n = 64 of 97) of YouTube videos. Warnings about age restrictions and health (e.g., nicotine addiction/ toxicity) did not feature in the majority of posts; 43.3% (n = 42) of YouTube videos (n = 42) contained an age warning compared to 20.2% of Instagram posts (n = 21). While 25.8% (n = 25) of YouTube videos and 21.2% of Instagram (n = 22) posts contained a health warning. Conclusion Of concern is the fact that the vast majority of YouTube and Instagram content about e-cigarettes promoted their use, and typically the content does not contain age and/or health warnings. These findings may highlight a priority for governmental policy to restrict the ability of marketers to reach youths with social media content promoting e-cigarettes.
BACKGROUND There has been a rapid rise in the popularity of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) over the last decade, with growth predicted to continue. The uptake of these devices has escalated despite inconclusive evidence of their efficacy as a smoking cessation device and unknown long-term health consequences. As smoking rates continue to drop or plateau in many well-developed countries, transnational tobacco companies have transitioned into the vaping industry and are now using social media to promote their products. Evidence indicates e-cigarettes are being marketed on social media as a harm reduction alternative, with retailers and manufacturers utilizing marketing techniques historically used by the tobacco industry. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to identify and describe the messages presented in e-cigarette–related social media (Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest) promotions and discussions and identify future directions for research, surveillance, and regulation. MET...
E-cigarettes and social media: attitudes and perceptions of young adults to social media messages
Addiction Research & Theory, 2019
Electronic devices that deliver nicotine, e-cigarettes (e-cigs), pose significant risks and can be addictive. Young adults have the highest prevalence of e-cig usage and are among the most frequent users of social media. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently imposed restrictions on the promotion of flavors and messages that claim e-cigs are healthier than cigarettes, there are no regulations in the social media space. Our objective was to understand how exposure to e-cigs on social media might influence attitudes and perceptions towards e-cigs among young adults. Thirty-one 18-24 year olds participated in four focus groups in which they responded to examples of social media posts about e-cigs. A thematic analysis was conducted, which revealed three primary themes: (1) social media normalizes e-cigs, in which young adults stated that they are frequently exposed to e-cig content on social media through news organizations and interpersonal relationships; (2) visual appeals are influential, including how depictions of aspirational lifestyles and appealing flavor associations enticed participants; (3) constantly seeing e-cig related messages on social media may encourage trial. The promotion of e-cigs within social media platforms should be closely monitored, to prevent the current epidemic from reaching even larger proportions.
Tobacco Control
BackgroundE-cigarette promotion on social media coincided with the rapid growth of e-cigarette use among American youth, particularly with the increased JUUL pod vaporiser use. We examined commercial JUUL-related messages on Instagram to identify marketing appeals used to target users along the continuum of e-cigarette use; we mapped the appeals to existing theoretical marketing frameworks to better understand industry strategies.MethodsHashtag-based keyword rules were used to collect JUUL-related posts from the Instagram application programming interface, 1 March–13 November 2018. Posts were classified as commercial or non-commercial. A combination of machine learning methods, keyword algorithms and human coding were used to characterise message themes in commercial posts.ResultsKeyword filters captured 50 817 relevant posts and 41% were commercial. Among commercial posts, 91% contained recruitment/trial-based appeals (eg, combustible tobacco cessation; product sampling; giveaways)...
Social media e-cigarette exposure and e-cigarette expectancies and use among young adults
Addictive behaviors, 2018
A vast majority of U.S. young adults use social media such as Facebook and Instagram daily. Research suggests that young adults are commonly exposed to e-cigarette-related marketing or user-generated content on the social media they use. Currently, however, there is limited empirical evidence as to how social media e-cigarette exposure is associated with e-cigarette use beliefs and behavior. In particular, limited evidence exists to support the proposition that social media e-cigarette exposure is uniquely associated with e-cigarette use, even after adjusting for the effects of e-cigarette use in young adults' in-person or 'offline' social networks. This study was conducted to test the hypotheses that 1) social media e-cigarette exposure is associated with e-cigarette use outcome expectancies and current e-cigarette use; and 2) the association between social media and e-cigarette use is linked via outcome expectancies. We collected cross-sectional data from a sample of 4...
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Background: There has been a rapid rise in the popularity of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) over the last decade, with growth predicted to continue. The uptake of these devices has escalated despite inconclusive evidence of their efficacy as a smoking cessation device and unknown long-term health consequences. As smoking rates continue to drop or plateau in many well-developed countries, transnational tobacco companies have transitioned into the vaping industry and are now using social media to promote their products. Evidence indicates e-cigarettes are being marketed on social media as a harm reduction alternative, with retailers and manufacturers utilizing marketing techniques historically used by the tobacco industry. Objective: This study aimed to identify and describe the messages presented in e-cigarette-related social media (Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest) promotions and discussions and identify future directions for research, surveillance, and regulation. Methods: Data sources included MEDLINE, Scopus, ProQuest, Informit, the Journal of Medical Internet Research, and Google Scholar. Included studies were published in English between 2007 and 2017, analyzed content captured from e-cigarette-related social media promotions or discussions, and reported results for e-cigarettes separately from other forms of tobacco and nicotine delivery. Database search ceased in October 2017. Initial searches identified 536 studies. Two reviewers screened studies by title and abstract. One reviewer examined 71 full-text articles to determine eligibility and identified 25 studies for inclusion. This process was undertaken with the assistance of the Web-based screening and data extraction tool-Covidence. The review was registered with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Systematic Reviews database and followed the methodology for JBI Scoping Reviews. Results: Several key messages are being used to promote e-cigarettes including as a safer alternative to cigarettes, efficacy as a smoking cessation aid, and for use where smoking is prohibited. Other major marketing efforts aimed at capturing a larger market involve promotion of innovative flavoring and highlighting the public performance of vaping. Discussion and promotion of these devices appear to be predominantly occurring among the general public and those with vested interests such as retailers and manufacturers. There is a noticeable silence from the public health and government sector in these discussions on social media. Conclusions: The social media landscape is dominated by pro-vaping messages disseminated by the vaping industry and vaping proponents. The uncertainty surrounding e-cigarette regulation expressed within the public health field appears not to be reflected in ongoing social media dialogues and highlights the need for public health professionals to interact with the public to actively influence social media conversations and create a more balanced discussion. With the vaping industry changing so rapidly, real-time monitoring and surveillance of how these devices are discussed, promoted, and used on social media is necessary in conjunction with evidence published in academic journals.