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E-Cigarette Retailers' Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis.


ABSTRACT: E-cigarette companies claim their products are key to improving health outcomes by providing smokers with lower-risk alternatives. However, the rapid uptake of e-cigarettes among young people has prompted concern about company marketing practices. In 2019, there was no legislation to govern e-cigarette marketing in New Zealand. This period provides an ideal context for examining how e-cigarette companies promoted their products before the introduction of marketing regulations. We conducted a content analysis of the Instagram accounts of five prominent e-cigarette retailers based in New Zealand during 2019-2020. We assessed health- and risk-related claims and marketing techniques. Less than 10% of Instagram posts refer to smoking alternatives or risk of nicotine addiction. E-cigarette devices were more likely to be promoted for stylistic features such as colours and ease of use (29.7%). Music festival sponsorship (19.1%), social media influencers (9.2%), and lifestyle marketing (41.5%) were identified as youth-oriented promotional strategies. E-cigarette retailers claim to promote harm-reduction tools to smokers, yet this study finds few references to smoking alternatives in any content. Instead, retailers utilised strategies to engage with a young audience, including festival sponsorship and stylish influencers. This youth-oriented marketing, in combination with weak and delayed government action, may have contributed to the high use of e-cigarettes among young New Zealanders.

SUBMITTER: Hardie L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9914635 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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E-Cigarette Retailers' Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis.

Hardie Lucy L   McCool Judith J   Freeman Becky B  

International journal of environmental research and public health 20230119 3


E-cigarette companies claim their products are key to improving health outcomes by providing smokers with lower-risk alternatives. However, the rapid uptake of e-cigarettes among young people has prompted concern about company marketing practices. In 2019, there was no legislation to govern e-cigarette marketing in New Zealand. This period provides an ideal context for examining how e-cigarette companies promoted their products before the introduction of marketing regulations. We conducted a con  ...[more]

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