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Sowles SJ, Krauss MJ, Connolly S, et al. A Content Analysis of Vaping Advertisements on Twitter, November 2014. Prev Chronic Dis. 2016;13:E139doi: 10.5888/pcd13.160274.
Sowles, S. J., Krauss, M. J., Connolly, S., & Cavazos-Rehg, P. A. (2016). A Content Analysis of Vaping Advertisements on Twitter, November 2014. Preventing chronic disease, 13E139. https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.160274
Sowles, Shaina J, et al. "A Content Analysis of Vaping Advertisements on Twitter, November 2014." Preventing chronic disease vol. 13 (2016): E139. doi: https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.160274
Sowles SJ, Krauss MJ, Connolly S, Cavazos-Rehg PA. A Content Analysis of Vaping Advertisements on Twitter, November 2014. Prev Chronic Dis. 2016 Sep 29;13:E139. doi: 10.5888/pcd13.160274. PMID: 27685432; PMCID: PMC5044552.
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Prev Chronic Dis. 2016 Sep 29;13:E139. doi: 10.5888/pcd13.160274.

A Content Analysis of Vaping Advertisements on Twitter, November 2014.

Preventing chronic disease

Shaina J Sowles, Melissa J Krauss, Sarah Connolly, Patricia A Cavazos-Rehg

Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S Euclid Ave, Box 8134, St. Louis, MO 63110. Email: [email protected].
  2. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.

PMID: 27685432 PMCID: PMC5044552 DOI: 10.5888/pcd13.160274

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Vaping has increased in popularity, and the potential harms and benefits are largely unknown. Vaping-related advertising is expected to grow as the vaping industry grows; people are exposed primarily to vaping advertisements on the Internet, and Twitter is an especially popular social medium among young people. The primary objective of our study was to describe the characteristics of vaping-related advertisements on Twitter.

METHODS: We collected data on 403,079 English-language tweets that appeared during November 2014 and contained vaping-related keywords. Using crowdsourcing services, we identified vaping-related advertisements in a random sample of 5,000 tweets. The advertisement tweets were qualitatively coded for popular marketing tactics by our research team. We also inferred the demographic characteristics of followers of 4 Twitter handles that advertised various novel vape products.

RESULTS: The random sample of 5,000 vaping-related tweets included 1,156 (23%) advertisement tweets that were further analyzed. Vape pens were advertised in nearly half of the advertisement tweets (47%), followed by e-juice (21%), which commonly mentioned flavors (42%). Coupons or price discounts were frequently observed (32%); only 3% of tweets mentioned vaping as a way to quit smoking or as an alternative to smoking. One handle had a disproportionately high percentage of racial/ethnic minority followers.

CONCLUSION: Vaping poses a threat to smoking prevention progress, and it is important for those in tobacco control to understand and counter the tactics used by vaping companies to entice their consumers, especially on social media where young people can easily view the content.

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