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Characterizing #Backwoods on Instagram: “The Number One Selling All Natural Cigar”

We sought to assess the proportion of Backwoods (Imperial Tobacco Group Brands LLC) cigar-related posts to Instagram that may contain misleading claims, nature-evoking imagery, and appealing flavors. Inclusion criteria for this study included an Instagram post with the hashtag “#backwoods” from 30 A...

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Autores principales: Smiley, Sabrina L., Kim, Stephanie, Mourali, Alia, Allem, Jon-Patrick, Unger, Jennifer B., Boley Cruz, Tess
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345638/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32630567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17124584
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author Smiley, Sabrina L.
Kim, Stephanie
Mourali, Alia
Allem, Jon-Patrick
Unger, Jennifer B.
Boley Cruz, Tess
author_facet Smiley, Sabrina L.
Kim, Stephanie
Mourali, Alia
Allem, Jon-Patrick
Unger, Jennifer B.
Boley Cruz, Tess
author_sort Smiley, Sabrina L.
collection PubMed
description We sought to assess the proportion of Backwoods (Imperial Tobacco Group Brands LLC) cigar-related posts to Instagram that may contain misleading claims, nature-evoking imagery, and appealing flavors. Inclusion criteria for this study included an Instagram post with the hashtag “#backwoods” from 30 August to 12 September 2018. Rules were established to content analyze (n = 1206) posts. Categories included misleading packaging (i.e., the post contained an image of a Backwoods product with the descriptor “natural” on the packaging), misleading promo (i.e., the corresponding caption to the post contained hashtag(s) like “#natural”, “#authentic”, “#alwaystrue”), nature-evoking imagery (i.e., the post contained images of grass, water, and pastural views along with a Backwoods product), flavors (i.e., the post contained a Backwoods product with brand-specific flavors on the packaging), flavor promo (i.e., the corresponding caption to the post contained hashtag(s) of Backwoods’ brand-specific flavors), marijuana-related (i.e., the post contained an image of marijuana next to a Backwoods pack, rolled cigars visibly contained marijuana, or hollowed-out cigars next to marijuana), smoking (the post contained an image of smoke or a lit cigar), brand-specific promo (i.e., the post contained an image of a Backwoods t-shirt, sweatshirt, hat, etc.), and perceived gender. Among the posts analyzed, 645 (53.5%) were marijuana-related, 564 (46.8%) were flavors, 463 (38.4%) were misleading packaging, 335 (27.8%) were flavor promo, 309 (25.6%) were misleading promo, 188 (15.6%) were nature-evoking imagery, 165 (13.7%) were smoking, 157 (13.0%) were brand-specific promo, and 239 (19.8%) were perceived male gender. Backwoods cigar-related posts to Instagram often contained misleading images and promotions of a “natural” tobacco product, images of marijuana use (in the form of blunt-making), brand-specific flavors, smoking, and promotional merchandise. Misleading images and the depictions of marijuana use in addition to the variety of flavor options may increase product appeal to consumers. These results underscore the need for comprehensive regulation of cigar products similar to cigarettes.
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spelling pubmed-73456382020-07-09 Characterizing #Backwoods on Instagram: “The Number One Selling All Natural Cigar” Smiley, Sabrina L. Kim, Stephanie Mourali, Alia Allem, Jon-Patrick Unger, Jennifer B. Boley Cruz, Tess Int J Environ Res Public Health Article We sought to assess the proportion of Backwoods (Imperial Tobacco Group Brands LLC) cigar-related posts to Instagram that may contain misleading claims, nature-evoking imagery, and appealing flavors. Inclusion criteria for this study included an Instagram post with the hashtag “#backwoods” from 30 August to 12 September 2018. Rules were established to content analyze (n = 1206) posts. Categories included misleading packaging (i.e., the post contained an image of a Backwoods product with the descriptor “natural” on the packaging), misleading promo (i.e., the corresponding caption to the post contained hashtag(s) like “#natural”, “#authentic”, “#alwaystrue”), nature-evoking imagery (i.e., the post contained images of grass, water, and pastural views along with a Backwoods product), flavors (i.e., the post contained a Backwoods product with brand-specific flavors on the packaging), flavor promo (i.e., the corresponding caption to the post contained hashtag(s) of Backwoods’ brand-specific flavors), marijuana-related (i.e., the post contained an image of marijuana next to a Backwoods pack, rolled cigars visibly contained marijuana, or hollowed-out cigars next to marijuana), smoking (the post contained an image of smoke or a lit cigar), brand-specific promo (i.e., the post contained an image of a Backwoods t-shirt, sweatshirt, hat, etc.), and perceived gender. Among the posts analyzed, 645 (53.5%) were marijuana-related, 564 (46.8%) were flavors, 463 (38.4%) were misleading packaging, 335 (27.8%) were flavor promo, 309 (25.6%) were misleading promo, 188 (15.6%) were nature-evoking imagery, 165 (13.7%) were smoking, 157 (13.0%) were brand-specific promo, and 239 (19.8%) were perceived male gender. Backwoods cigar-related posts to Instagram often contained misleading images and promotions of a “natural” tobacco product, images of marijuana use (in the form of blunt-making), brand-specific flavors, smoking, and promotional merchandise. Misleading images and the depictions of marijuana use in addition to the variety of flavor options may increase product appeal to consumers. These results underscore the need for comprehensive regulation of cigar products similar to cigarettes. MDPI 2020-06-25 2020-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7345638/ /pubmed/32630567 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17124584 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Smiley, Sabrina L.
Kim, Stephanie
Mourali, Alia
Allem, Jon-Patrick
Unger, Jennifer B.
Boley Cruz, Tess
Characterizing #Backwoods on Instagram: “The Number One Selling All Natural Cigar”
title Characterizing #Backwoods on Instagram: “The Number One Selling All Natural Cigar”
title_full Characterizing #Backwoods on Instagram: “The Number One Selling All Natural Cigar”
title_fullStr Characterizing #Backwoods on Instagram: “The Number One Selling All Natural Cigar”
title_full_unstemmed Characterizing #Backwoods on Instagram: “The Number One Selling All Natural Cigar”
title_short Characterizing #Backwoods on Instagram: “The Number One Selling All Natural Cigar”
title_sort characterizing #backwoods on instagram: “the number one selling all natural cigar”
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345638/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32630567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17124584
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