Cargando…

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

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-cigare...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hardie, Lucy, McCool, Judith, Freeman, Becky
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9914635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36767263
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031897
_version_ 1784885712110223360
author Hardie, Lucy
McCool, Judith
Freeman, Becky
author_facet Hardie, Lucy
McCool, Judith
Freeman, Becky
author_sort Hardie, Lucy
collection PubMed
description 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.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9914635
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-99146352023-02-11 E-Cigarette Retailers’ Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis Hardie, Lucy McCool, Judith Freeman, Becky Int J Environ Res Public Health Article 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. MDPI 2023-01-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9914635/ /pubmed/36767263 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031897 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hardie, Lucy
McCool, Judith
Freeman, Becky
E-Cigarette Retailers’ Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis
title E-Cigarette Retailers’ Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis
title_full E-Cigarette Retailers’ Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis
title_fullStr E-Cigarette Retailers’ Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis
title_full_unstemmed E-Cigarette Retailers’ Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis
title_short E-Cigarette Retailers’ Use of Instagram in New Zealand: A Content Analysis
title_sort e-cigarette retailers’ use of instagram in new zealand: a content analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9914635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36767263
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031897
work_keys_str_mv AT hardielucy ecigaretteretailersuseofinstagraminnewzealandacontentanalysis
AT mccooljudith ecigaretteretailersuseofinstagraminnewzealandacontentanalysis
AT freemanbecky ecigaretteretailersuseofinstagraminnewzealandacontentanalysis