Cigarette smoking may not be as popular as it once was, but smokeless tobacco and other nicotine delivery systems continue to remain popular in the United States for a number of reasons related to aesthetics, perceived lack of health risks, accessibility, etc. Seemingly endless variation exists from product-to-product, and the science concerning the long-term effects of different nicotine-containing formulations is by no means considered robust. While the health effects remain to be at least detrimental, the sociological effects are often muddled. This study aims to characterize how young adults initiate smokeless tobacco consumption based upon their prior exposure to advertisements and other marketing strategies related to the products.
This study analyzed data from a longitudinal project across universities in Texas called the Marketing and Promotions Across Colleges in Texas Study (Project M-PACT). This longitudinal dataset was collected in waves beginning in 2015 with 5482 two-year and four-year university students. For this purposes of this study, waves 6 and 7 were used, which were collected in spring of 2017 and spring of 2018 respectively, using a total of 2731 remaining participants (N=2731, 93.8% retention). The specific data analyzed were answers to questions related to smokeless tobacco initiation, recall of smokeless tobacco advertisements, and the medium through which the specific advertisements were delivered. Example questions include “Have you ever used smokeless tobacco, such as moist snuff, dip, snus, or chewing tobacco?” and “Where do you remember seeing or hearing advertisements for smokeless tobacco?”. Formal analysis was performed using multilevel, multiple regression modelling of each variable across the follow up periods.
Results of the analysis found that roughly half of all participants reported viewing smokeless tobacco advertisements in a retail setting (50.7%), while the remainder recalled advertisements via online platforms, billboards, radio marketing, etc. In comparison of the total number of smokeless tobacco users from wave 6 to wave 7, it was determined that 2.6% of non-users initiated consumption of tobacco between the two study waves, and that these specific participants also reported higher overall exposure levels to smokeless tobacco advertising. Participants who identified as Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native American had significantly greater odds of being exposed to smokeless tobacco marketing than non-Hispanic whites. In summary, exposure to smokeless tobacco marketing between the two waves of data retrieval resulted in 2.14 times greater odds of initiating smokeless tobacco than those who were not recalling exposure.
Takeaway: advertising will continue to remain a powerful factor in influencing the consumption of various substances across populations. This study’s findings were rather intuitive, but of interesting note was the racial discrepancy that existed among students who were more likely to be exposed to smokeless tobacco products.
Clendennen SL, Mantey DS, Wilkinson AV, Perry CL, Harrell MB, Loukas A. Digital marketing of smokeless tobacco: A longitudinal analysis of exposure and initiation among young adults. Addictive Behaviors. 2021;117:106850. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106850