Rob Dillard

DocwireNews

Cartoon-based marketing exposure to e-cigarettes may increase the likelihood of young adults deciding to start <a href="https://www.docwirenews.com/abstracts/vaping-cannabis-among-adolescents-prevalence-and-associations-with-tobacco-use-from-a-cross-sectional-study-in-the-usa/">vaping</a>, according to University of Southern California (USC) researchers who <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871619301796?dgcid=coauthor#bib0150">published</a> their findings in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.The tobacco industry once famously used cartoons to market their products to the younger generation, most notably with the infamous &ldquo;Joe Camel&rdquo; advertisements. That practice changed with Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) which restricted the use of cartoons for marketing combustible cigarettes and chewing tobacco. However, no such restrictions currently exist in e-cigarette marketing, and according the study authors, who conducted social media observations prior to this study, &ldquo;we found that e-liquid manufacturers and vendors were using cartoons to market their products and many of these companies&rsquo; logos were cartoons, suggesting that the cartoon image is integral to their brand identity and recognition strategy.&rdquo;In this study, researchers administered two separate online surveys between July 13th and August 10th, 2018. Study 1 included 778 participants (62% women, mean age, 23.5) who completed a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of the expected benefits and risks of e-cigarettes and were provided a task to gage their recognition of several cartoons and non-cartoons in e-liquid marketing images. Study 2 was comprised of 522 participants (55% women, mean age, 30.4) who were prompted to complete a task designed to appraise the appeal of e-liquid packaging with and without a cartoon.<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
USC study finds e-cigarette cartoon ads may increase likelihood of vaping <a href="https://t.co/ROD38Qip7T">https://t.co/ROD38Qip7T</a>
&mdash; Bioengineer.org (@bioengineerorg) <a href="https://twitter.com/bioengineerorg/status/1139550694640410624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2019</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><h2>&lsquo;Never Users&rsquo; Are Susceptible</h2>According to the results of Study 1, 303 (39%) of participants had never used e-cigarettes, 220 (28%) had used e-cigarettes over the course of their lives, and 255 (33%) had smoked e-cigarettes in the past month. Among &lsquo;never users&rsquo;, cartoon recognition showed a significant correlation with higher expectation of taste enjoyment (p=.002), and those who reported cartoon recognition were more susceptible to future use (OR=4.61; 95% CI, 1.64 to 12.97). However, the results of Study 2 suggest no discernible difference between cartoon and non-cartoon images with respect to product appeal, and the researchers found no significant image type and user status interactions.&ldquo;Among young adults who had never used e-cigarettes, we found a significant effect of cartoon-based marketing on their likelihood of using the products in the future,&rdquo; said Jon-Patrick Allem, co-leader of the study and assistant professor of research at the&nbsp;<a href="https://keck.usc.edu/">Keck School of Medicine of USC</a> in a <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/uosc-usf061419.php">press release</a>. &ldquo;Cartoons appear to be very effective at increasing susceptibility to use e-cigarettes among individuals who aren&rsquo;t using them to begin with.&rdquo;&ldquo;By examining relationships between cartoon-based advertisement and logos and e-cigarette-related outcomes among young and older adults, the present study could motivate policies aimed at reducing cartoon-based e-cigarette advertising like the restriction established in the Master Settlement Agreement,&rdquo; the authors wrote in their conclusion. &ldquo;In the interim, future research should try to expand the present findings to include longitudinal examinations of the potential causal impact of exposure to cartoon-based marketing on subsequent e-cigarette initiation among adolescents.&rdquo;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/USC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USC</a> study finds e-cigarette cartoon ads may increase likelihood of vaping <a href="https://t.co/BKp38QUvII">https://t.co/BKp38QUvII</a>
&mdash; Art Fridrich (@Ahighervision) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ahighervision/status/1139629406115237894?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2019</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
USC study finds e-cigarette cartoon ads may increase likelihood of vaping. Research suggests that exposure to cartoon-based advertisements for e-cigarettes is related to greater potential for young adults to use the products in the fut&hellip; <a href="https://t.co/Bw1Ea7vbuD">https://t.co/Bw1Ea7vbuD</a>
&mdash; New Scientist Zone (@NewScientistZon) <a href="https://twitter.com/NewScientistZon/status/1139919044822405120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2019</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Source: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871619301796?dgcid=coauthor#bib0150">Drug and Alcohol Dependence</a>, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/uosc-usf061419.php">EurekAlert</a>

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Cartoon-based marketing exposure to e-cigarettes may increase the likelihood of young adults deciding to start vaping, according to University of Southern California 

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