‘Beyond nicotine’ marketing strategies: Big Tobacco diversification into the vaping and cannabis product sectors

Dewhirst, Timothy

doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056798

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Additionally, more recently, multiple tobacco companies have started to invest in the cannabis industry, potentially using similar marketing tactics and materials to target the same communities and consumers to increase the sales of both nicotine and cannabis products. 30,31 Our findings that e-cigarette marketing exposure was only associated with sole-cannabis vaping and dual-vaping behaviors, but not with sole-nicotine vaping, may be explained by dissimilar development of advertising restrictions for nicotine and cannabis products in recent years. First, various advertising restrictions and reduced advertising expenditures on nicotine vape products may have served to diminish the impact of e-cigarette marketing on nicotine vape product use.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 80%

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Associations between e-cigarette marketing exposure and vaping nicotine and cannabis among U.S. adults, 2021

Chen-Sankey,

La Cparia,

Glasser

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Importance. Vaping has become an increasingly common method for consuming nicotine and cannabis, a trend potentially influenced by e-cigarette marketing. However, little is known about the influence of e-cigarette marketing on cannabis vaping behaviors. Objective. To examine the associations between e-cigarette marketing exposure and nicotine and cannabis vaping behaviors among adults. Design, Setting, and Participants. This cross-sectional study included a U.S. nationally representative sample of adults (≥18 years) from the Wave 6 survey of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, conducted from March to November 2021. Exposure. Past 30-day e-cigarette marketing exposure (overall and by ten marketing channels). Main Outcomes and Measures. Past 30-day vaping behavior (sole- and dual-vaping of nicotine and cannabis) overall and stratified by age. Results. The study included 30,516 respondents (48.0% male and 63.9% non-Hispanic White). Overall, 52.0% of respondents reported past 30-day e-cigarette marketing exposure, and 89.8%, 5.6%, 3.2%, and 1.4% reported no vaping, sole-nicotine vaping, sole-cannabis vaping, and dual-vaping, respectively. Multinominal logistic regression results show exposure to e-cigarette marketing was associated with increased odds of reporting sole-cannabis vaping versus no vaping (adjusted risk ratio [aRR], 1.31; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09-1.57) and dual-vaping versus no vaping (aRR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.01-1.57). Stratification analysis found these associations among those aged 18-24 and 25-34 years but not older adults (≥35 years). Those exposed to e-cigarette marketing also had increased odds of reporting sole-cannabis vaping versus sole-nicotine vaping (aRR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.04-1.58). Stratification analysis found this association only among those aged 18-24 years. E-cigarette marketing exposure via several channels (retail stores, billboards, events, newspapers/magazines) was associated with increased odds of reporting sole-cannabis vaping. Conclusions and Relevance. E-cigarette marketing exposure was only associated with sole-cannabis vaping and dual-vaping, not sole-nicotine vaping among U.S. adults. Such associations were mainly driven by young adults aged 18-24 and 25-35 years and were found for multiple marketing channels. Greater restrictions on tobacco marketing may have reduced the influence of e-cigarette marketing on nicotine vaping, while gaps in such marketing restrictions for cannabis may contribute to continued influence of e-cigarette marketing on cannabis vaping.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between e-cigarette marketing exposure and vaping nicotine and cannabis among U.S. adults, 2021

Chen-Sankey,

La Cparia,

Glasser

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…For example, in 2021 BAT highlighted their products serving the purpose of ‘On the Go, Wellbeing and Stimulation’ 79. PMI focused on ‘botanicals’ and ‘respiratory drug delivery’, suggesting a move towards the business of ‘wellness,’ as presented during its 2021 Investor Day 80 81. Dewhirst has also noted tobacco industry inroads into cannabis, taking advantage of cannabis’s rehabilitated classification for medical use to advance to the ‘well-being’ industry 80.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…79 PMI focused on ‘botanicals’ and ‘respiratory drug delivery’, suggesting a move towards the business of ‘wellness,’ as presented during its 2021 Investor Day. 80 81 Dewhirst has also noted tobacco industry inroads into cannabis, taking advantage of cannabis’s rehabilitated classification for medical use to advance to the ‘well-being’ industry. 80 In both cases, the move is away from framing the products as addictive drugs and associating them with lifestyle, recreation and even health.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame

Hendlin,

Han,

Ling

2024

BMJ Glob Health

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ContextDeclining smoking prevalence and denormalisation of tobacco in developed countries reduced transnational tobacco company (TTC) profit during 1990s and 2000s. As these companies faced increasingly restrictive policies and lawsuits, they planned to shift their business to socially acceptable reduced-harm products. We describe the internal motivations and strategies to achieve this goal.MethodsWe analysed previously secret tobacco industry documents available through the Truth Tobacco Documents Library. These documents were triangulated with TTCs’ investor and other professional reports, websites and public statements.FindingsMimicking pharmaceutical business models, tobacco companies sought to refurbish their image and ensure long-term profitability by creating and selling pharmaceutical-like products as smoking declined. These products included snus, heated tobacco products, e-cigarettes, nicotine gums and inhalers. Tobacco companies created separate divisions to develop and roll out these products, and the majority developed medical research programmes to steer these products through regulatory agencies, seeking certification as reduced-harm or pharmaceutical products. These products were regarded as key to the survival of the tobacco industry in an unfriendly political and social climate.ConclusionsPharmaceuticalisation was pursued to perpetuate the profitability of tobacco and nicotine for tobacco companies, not as a sincere search to mitigate the harms of smoking in society. Promotion of new pharmaceuticalised products has split the tobacco control community, with some public health professionals and institutions advocating for the use of ‘clean’ reduced-harm nicotine and tobacco products, essentially carrying out tobacco industry objectives.

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“…A recent and heavily criticised example of pharmaceuticalisation was PMI’s September 2021 takeover of the UK pharmaceutical company Vectura, which produces inhaled medications, an act that prompted protest from the medical community calling it ‘deeply disturbing and perverse’ that a tobacco company would profit from treatment of the lung diseases caused by its products 112. The purchase is consistent with tobacco industry plans to move into cannabis, botanicals and respiratory drug delivery as part of their ‘beyond nicotine’ strategy to offer a variety of different products that offer consumers ‘sensorial enjoyment for different moods and moments’ 113 114. In addition to the diversified tobacco industry, a host of other companies are entering the market, producing similar nicotine and vaporised products, including counterfeit products, which raise further regulatory challenges.…”

Section: Beyond Nicotinementioning

confidence: 91%

Moving targets: how the rapidly changing tobacco and nicotine landscape creates advertising and promotion policy challenges

et al. 2022

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Tobacco, nicotine and related products have and continue to change rapidly, creating new challenges for policies regulating their advertising, promotion, sponsorship and sales. This paper reviews recent commercial product offerings and the regulatory challenges associated with them. This includes electronic nicotine delivery systems, electronic non-nicotine delivery systems, personal vaporisers, heated tobacco products, nicotine salts, tobacco-free nicotine products, other nicotine products resembling nicotine replacement therapies, and various vitamin and cannabis products that share delivery devices or marketing channels with tobacco products. There is substantial variation in the availability of these tobacco, nicotine, vaporised, and related products globally, and policies regulating these products also vary substantially between countries. Many of these products avoid regulation by exploiting loopholes in the definition of tobacco or nicotine products, or by occupying a regulatory grey area where authority is unclear. These challenges will increase as the tobacco industry continues to diversify its product portfolio, and weaponises ‘tobacco harm reduction’ rhetoric to undermine policies limiting marketing, promotion and taxation of tobacco, nicotine and related products. Tobacco control policy often lags behind the evolution of the industry, which may continue to sell these products for years while regulations are established, refined or enforced. Policies that anticipate commercial tobacco, nicotine and related product and marketing changes and that are broad enough to cover these product developments are needed.

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‘Beyond nicotine’ marketing strategies: Big Tobacco diversification into the vaping and cannabis product sectors

Cited by 10 publications

References 11 publications

Associations between e-cigarette marketing exposure and vaping nicotine and cannabis among U.S. adults, 2021

Associations between e-cigarette marketing exposure and vaping nicotine and cannabis among U.S. adults, 2021

Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame

Moving targets: how the rapidly changing tobacco and nicotine landscape creates advertising and promotion policy challenges

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