Young adults who are more familiar with e-cigarette marketing practices are more likely to have attitudes against vaping than those unaware of the industry's marketing, according to a study led by Drexel University public health researchers published this month in the journal Tobacco Control.
Expanding on ways cigarettes were marketed in the 1970s, such as using models and hosting smoking events, e-cigarette marketing includes more modern tactics, like paying social media influencers to promote vaping. The findings, from researchers at Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health and The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, suggest that efforts to educate young people about e-cigarette marketing tactics can help reduce the number of new vape users.
The researchers surveyed 1,329 young adults, 18–30, who never used tobacco products—but were deemed "susceptible to vaping," from their responses to screening questions—about their awareness of the e-cigarette industry's marketing practices and their level of agreement with anti-e-cigarette attitude statements, such as "taking a stand against vaping is important to me."