E-Cigarette Marketing on Social Media: A Scoping Review.

Abstract

Purpose of review: Given the rapidly evolving nature of e-cigarette marketing on social media, an up-to-date review of e-cigarette marketing on social media is needed. This study aims to identify recent (published between 2017 and 2021) e-cigarette promotional strategies and promotional themes on social media to inform tobacco regulatory policies on e-cigarette marketing.

Recent findings: Out of the 29 studies that had examined e-cigarette marketing on social media, the common promotional strategies were price promotion (N = 13; 44.8%), featuring flavors (N = 13; 44.8%), featuring product characteristics (N = 10; 34.5%), using youth-appealing themes (N = 8; 27.6%), celebrity/influencer marketing (N = 5; 17.2%), building pro-vape communities and identities (N = 5; 17.2%), and incentivizing friend tagging (N = 3; 10.3%). Promotional themes included positive themes such as "safe," "healthy," "young," "independence," "natural," and "cool."

Summary: This study provides the most recent scoping review on e-cigarette marketing practices on social media. Our study findings suggest that novel methods are used in e-cigarette marketing on social media.