Exploring How the Tobacco Industry Presents and Promotes Itself in Social Media

Abstract

BackgroundThe commercial potential of social media is utilized by tobacco manufacturers and vendors for tobacco promotion online. However, the prevalence and promotional strategies of pro-tobacco content in social media are still not widely understood.ObjectiveThe goal of this study was to reveal what is presented by the tobacco industry, and how it promotes itself, on social media sites.MethodsThe top 70 popular cigarette brands are divided into two groups according to their retail prices: group H (brands with high retail prices) and group L (brands with low retail prices). Three comprehensive searches were conducted on Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube respectively using the top 70 popular cigarette brands as keywords. We identified tobacco-related content including history and culture, product features, health warnings, home page of cigarette brands, and Web-based tobacco shops. Furthermore, we examined the promotional strategies utilized in social media.ResultsAccording to the data collected from March 3, 2014 to March 10, 2014, 43 of the 70 representative cigarette brands had created 238 Facebook fan pages, 46 cigarette brands were identified in Wikipedia, and there were over 120,000 pro-tobacco videos on YouTube, associated with 61 cigarette brands. The main content presented on the three social media websites differs significantly. Wikipedia focuses on history and culture (67%, 32/48; P<.001). Facebook mainly covers history and culture (37%, 16/43; P<.001) and major products (35%, 15/43), while YouTube focuses on the features of major tobacco products (79%, 48/61; P=.04) and information about Web-based shops (49%, 30/61; P=.004). Concerning the content presented by groups H and L, there is no significant difference between the two groups. With regard to the promotional strategies used, sales promotions exist extensively in social media. Sales promotion is more prevalent on YouTube than on the other two sites (64%, 39/61 vs 35%, 15/43; P=.004). Generally, the sale promotions of higher-cost brands in social media are more prevalent than those of lower-cost brands (55%, 16/29 vs 7%, 1/14; P<.001 for Facebook; 78%, 28/36 vs 44%, 11/25; P=.005 for YouTube).ConclusionsThe prevalence of cigarette brands in social media allows more pro-tobacco information to be accessed by online users. This dilemma indicates that corresponding regulations should be established to prevent tobacco promotion in social media.

Promotion of tobacco products on Facebook: policy versus practice

“…This would better capture relationships which flow from the algorithmic and participatory nature of social media 38. An automated, large-scale analysis of a substantial data set of user interactions among tobacco social media revealed that tobacco-related content grows exponentially while there is linear growth for the tobacco control group 21. In addition, the antitobacco community is more tightly connected, while the much larger protobacco community is sparsely connected.…”

Marketing to Youth in the Digital Age: The Promotion of Unhealthy Products and Health Promoting Behaviours on Social Media

“…A content analysis of UK Top 40 YouTube music videos showed that tobacco imagery appeared in 22% of the videos, and tobacco branding in 4% (Cranwell et al, 2015). A recent comprehensive analysis of the 70 most popular cigarette brands on YouTube revealed over 120,000 pro-tobacco videos (Liang et al, 2015). The YouTube videos focused on the features of tobacco products (79%), information about Web-based shops (49%), and sales promotion (64%).…”

“…Liang and colleagues' comprehensive study of the top 70 popular cigarette brands found that 43 of the brands had created 238 Facebook fan pages, with 1,189,976 page likes and 19,022 posts (Liang et al, 2015). An early study demonstrated that British American Tobacco (BAT) employees were promoting BAT and BAT brands on Facebook by joining and administrating groups, joining pages as fans and posting photographs of BAT events, products and promotional items (Freeman & Chapman, 2010).…”

Marijuana advertising exposure among current marijuana users in the U.S.

“…Nevertheless, regulation of online advertising for other substances and preventing underage access has been found to be challenging. Despite banning tobacco advertising on its platform, cigarette brand fan pages were easily found on Facebook (Liang et al, 2015). Furthermore, specific brands of e-cigarettes have been found to advertise on websites with an audience of up to 35% youth (Richardson et al, 2014), and underage Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube users can easily access and interact with alcohol industry content on these platforms (Barry, Bates, et al, 2015; Barry, Johnson, et al, 2015).…”