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. 2017 Sep 11;20(11):1393–1400. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntx200

Monitoring Tobacco Brand Websites to Understand Marketing Strategies Aimed at Tobacco Product Users and Potential Users

Patricia Escobedo 1,✉, Tess Boley Cruz 1, Kai-Ya Tsai 1, Jon-Patrick Allem 1, Daniel W Soto 1, Matthew G Kirkpatrick 1, Monica Pattarroyo 1, Jennifer B Unger 1
PMCID: PMC6154979  PMID: 29059386

Abstract

Introduction

Limited information exists about strategies and methods used on brand marketing websites to transmit pro-tobacco messages to tobacco users and potential users. This study compared age verification methods, themes, interactive activities and links to social media across tobacco brand websites.

Methods

This study examined 12 tobacco brand websites representing four tobacco product categories: cigarettes, cigar/cigarillos, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarettes. Website content was analyzed by tobacco product category and data from all website visits (n = 699) were analyzed. Adult smokers (n = 32) coded websites during a one-year period, indicating whether or not they observed any of 53 marketing themes, seven interactive activities, or five external links to social media sites.

Results

Most (58%) websites required online registration before entering, however e-cigarette websites used click-through age verification. Compared to cigarette sites, cigar/cigarillo sites were more likely to feature themes related to “party” lifestyle, and e-cigarette websites were much more likely to feature themes related to harm reduction. Cigarette sites featured greater levels of interactive content compared to other tobacco products. Compared to cigarette sites, cigar/cigarillo sites were more likely to feature activities related to events and music. Compared to cigarette sites, both cigar and e-cigarette sites were more likely to direct visitors to external social media sites.

Conclusion

Marketing methods and strategies normalize tobacco use by providing website visitors with positive themes combined with interactive content, and is an area of future research. Moreover, all tobacco products under federal regulatory authority should be required to use more stringent age verification gates.

Implications

Findings indicate that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should require brand websites of all tobacco products under its regulatory authority use more stringent age verification gates by requiring all visitors be at least 18 years of age and register online prior to entry. This is important given that marketing strategies may encourage experimentation with tobacco or deter quit attempts among website visitors. Future research should examine the use of interactive activities and social media on a wide variety of tobacco brand websites as interactive content is associated with more active information processing.

Introduction

Tobacco companies promote products on the internet through tobacco brand marketing websites and across social media, where advertising is largely unregulated.1–3 The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) prohibits major cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers from targeting youth audiences. However, additional restrictions on tobacco company websites are mostly self-imposed.4 Understanding how tobacco companies use brand websites to promote and disseminate information about their products is critical for effective tobacco control.5,6

The internet has provided tobacco companies with a growing, dynamic, and relatively inexpensive marketing medium with advertising on brand websites, other internet sites, and through related promotions like the electronic distribution of discount coupons.7 According to annual Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports, cigarette and smokeless tobacco companies increased advertising spending on company websites over the 12 years these data have been reported, reaching $16.6 million for cigarettes and $6.4 million for smokeless tobacco in 2014.7,8 Though cigar companies do not report annual expenditures on advertising, a 1999 FTC report revealed that major cigar companies spent $218000 on internet advertising and promotional activities in 1997, up 76% from the year before.9 Annual expenditures on electronic-cigarette (e-cigarette) advertising are not reported to the FTC but a recent study estimated that these online expenditures reached $1.1 million in 2011, then dropped to $151193 in 2012.10

Tobacco Brand Website Content

Tobacco companies spend millions of dollars annually on internet advertising, however limited information exists about the role of company websites in transmitting pro-tobacco marketing messages to tobacco users and potential users. A case study of the Camel cigarette website found that open source marketing strategies engaged thousands of visitors by encouraging users to submit their own cigarette packaging designs.11 Content analysis of the Camel Snus website message boards revealed that visitors shared mostly positive experiences and perceptions about products and that message boards allowed Camel to gain insight into product demand and user perceptions of cost and flavors.6 Similarly, an analysis of the interactive features on the Marlboro cigarette brand website found opportunities to request coupons, create a personalized logo or “brand” that accompanies the user profile and participate in active discussion forums.12 These studies indicate that tobacco brand websites promote products and tobacco use through interactive features designed to engage consumers and increase brand loyalty,13 however no study to our knowledge examines and compares brand website content across four different tobacco product categories. Alternative tobacco products such as smokeless, cigarillos and e-cigarette products have been marketed as substitutes to cigarettes.14–16 This is concerning given that poly-tobacco use, particularly among young adults, is on the rise.17 Many smokeless and e-cigarette advertisements use modified or reduced risk claims and emphasize that products can be used anywhere and bypass indoor air quality laws.18,19 Although flavored cigarettes are banned in the United States, cigar and cigarillo websites use flavors to market their products, potentially targeting youth.20 Understanding differences by tobacco product categories is critical for the design of counter messaging directed at specific tobacco products and poly-tobacco use.

Website Age Verification Gates

Several leading tobacco companies limit tobacco brand website access to smokers 18 years of age or older using an electronic age verification process in order to comply with the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement which restricts direct marketing to youth.4,6,21 These screening measures aim to prevent youth from accessing pro-tobacco content on cigarette and smokeless tobacco websites by verifying visitor name, date of birth, and address, before entering the website.12 These data provide tobacco companies with users’ contact information and demographic characteristics, which can also be used to deliver targeted marketing messages through brand websites, emails, or postal mail.6,22

Despite the presence of age verification gates on leading cigarette and smokeless websites, less stringent age verification gates were found on leading e-cigarette brand websites,4 indicating that some websites allow youth to easily enter and interact with marketing messages that promote e-cigarette and nicotine use. Though an earlier study examined age verification notices across various tobacco product websites,23 prior work has not examined age verification gates on popular cigar/cigarillo and smokeless brand websites. Given that MSA marketing restrictions do not apply to cigar, cigarillo, and e-cigarette products, age verification gates across tobacco product categories may differ.

Social Media

Tobacco brand websites can serve as a platform to direct visitors to external social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, providing additional opportunities for dissemination of positive messages about tobacco products, often without health warnings or age restrictions. Furthermore, messages that were originally intended for tobacco users can spread to nonusers through social media.24 Content analyses of tobacco related content on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have documented extensive pro-tobacco content including the history and culture of products and brands, product promotions, smoking cessation claims,25–32 and the diffusion of messages from marketers and media consumers to other social media users.25

Current Study

Thousands of websites are dedicated to the sale, marketing and promotion of tobacco products, however the current study focuses specifically on leading tobacco brand websites, in particular the cigarette, cigar/cigarillo, smokeless, and snus brands with the greatest percentage of total US sales.33–35 In total this study examined 12 tobacco brand websites representing four different tobacco product categories: cigarettes (Camel, Marlboro, Newport, Pall Mall), smokeless tobacco (Camel Snus, Copenhagen), cigar and cigarillos (Swisher Sweets, Black & Mild), and e-cigarettes (Blu, Njoy, V2, Vuse). Content on these sites was analyzed over a 1-year period to compare age verification methods, marketing themes, interactive activities and links to social media sites by tobacco product categories. An understanding of the methods and messages about tobacco products that appear on brand-specific marketing websites can help tobacco control practitioners produce and disseminate compelling and relevant online communications to counter pro-tobacco messages.

Methods

Sampling & Participants

Participant coders visited twelve tobacco brand websites from March 2015 through February 2016. Websites were selected by first identifying the cigarette, cigar/cigarillo, and smokeless tobacco brands with the greatest percentage of total sales, or market share, in the United States.33–35 Next, the top four cigarette brands, the top two cigar/cigarillo brands, the top premium smokeless tobacco and the top snus brand with active brand websites were selected. Two e-cigarette brands distributed by tobacco industry leaders (Blu and Vuse), and two independently owned brands (Njoy and V2) were also selected. To comply with the CASRO Social Media Research Guidelines, and to avoid exposing nonsmokers to pro-tobacco information, 32 adults 21 years of age or older and who smoked at least occasionally were recruited to code the brand marketing websites.36 Eligible participants needed to reside within the United States and have access to a computer or tablet. Participants were recruited using posted flyers and online advertisements. Participants were recruited to include equal numbers of men and women from four ethnic groups (African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic/Latino, White). Websites may tailor content based on visitor demographics obtained during registration,37 therefore we recruited participants from varying demographic groups. This approach provides investigators greater access to a larger range of marketing and advertising content for brand websites. All participants provided informed consent and a monthly incentive of $40. Participants received an individual training session with investigators using online conferencing software. Participants were instructed on how to navigate websites and answer survey questions while using the Webcoder application. Investigators explained survey items and assisted participants during a practice coding session. Participant performance was reviewed monthly, and retraining was provided as needed. Coders who discontinued the study or were dismissed were replaced by participants matching the same demographic characteristics. The University Institutional Review Board approved all procedures.

Procedure

WebCoder is a Windows application created specifically for this study. It allows participants to explore websites using a browser-like window with an interface displaying questions about website characteristics and themes. Participants respond to survey questions while navigating freely through each website. Participants logged onto WebCoder for a minimum of 2 hours each month and coders completed surveys for each website visit. Participants were instructed to visit and code at least ten different webpages per website, as the number of available webpages per website ranged from 20 to over 100. The Webcoder application calculates the number of webpages visited and monitors coder activity and inactivity, such that after 5 minutes of inactivity the application would pause the timed coding session, notify the coder of inactivity and resume timing once coder was once again actively using the application. Research investigators alternated the assigned websites each month to ensure coders had the opportunity to visit each of the 12 website every 3 to 4 months. Participants were instructed to visit two to three assigned websites per month, therefore some websites were coded more frequently than others given that participants had the freedom to decide which assigned websites to code each month. For example, the Newport website was visited 16 times, while the Blu website was visited 44 times during the study period. Some participants chose not code the Newport website during the study period, however each website was coded by at least five participants when assigned on Webcoder. Participants created unique user profiles on websites requiring online registration. Using multiple coders allows investigators to capture a range of marketing themes and website characteristics. Extant research on tobacco brand websites consist mostly of case studies, however the current study conducts a more comprehensive content analysis by aggregating participant data over a 1 year period to determine the presence of important marketing themes and websites features across different tobacco product websites.

Measures

Participants identified whether they observed any of 53 marketing themes (eg, adventure, flavors, sex appeal, less harmful, technology) for each webpage within the site. All themes were selected a priori using a two-step process: first, investigators reviewed tobacco brand websites then collaborated to create a comprehensive list of unique themes based on what they observed, and based on previous literature on tobacco marketing themes.23 Investigators also created a list of interactive activities and social media links based on the initial website review and previous research.11,12,35 Participants were asked to identify whether they observed any of seven interactive activities (chat rooms/bulletin boards, creating user profile, event information, interactive games, contests, ability to request coupons [through email, mobile phone or printed from the website], and selecting music, or other) and any of five external links to social media sites (Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or other) at any time during the web visit. To account for some websites being visited more frequently than others, all themes, interactive activities and social media links was dichotomized with a “1” indicating that the feature was observed by a participant anywhere on the website at least once during a monthly website visit. Other interactive activities and social media links were listed as optional choices but the most commonly selected options were selected for this analysis. To assess interrater reliability, Cohen’s kappa was computed for pairs of coders then averaged for the Vuse and Copenhagen websites at the outset of the study (κ = .58 and κ = .64, respectively). Research investigators visited each of the 12 websites to document age entry requirements and type of age verification gate used (entering date of birth, click-through verification or online registration).

Analysis Plan

This analysis reports on 12 consecutive months of coding from March 2015 to February 2016. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for all themes coded by determining how often a theme or website characteristic was observed during all website visits for each tobacco product category (N = 699). To reduce the number of themes used in our analysis, data from all website visits (n = 699) were analyzed using principal axis factoring (PAF) extraction and Promax (oblique) rotation methods. Using the scree plot test, preference for simple structure loading and primary factor loading of .5 or above as significance criteria, an eight factor solution was preferred. The resulting eight simple structure factors included: social (6 items: social, fun, hip, cool, contests, adventures, [eigenvalue] 9.99), innovation (4 items: simple to use, convenient, technology, price, 3.78), successful (appearance or actions) (2 items: responsible, successful, 1.88), party lifestyle (6 items: can see smoke/vapor, nightlife, celebrities, music, party, holiday, 1.80), taste (2 items: smooth taste, satisfying, 1.50), harm reduction (4 items: safer for others, less harmful, alternative to quitting, light/low tar, 1.40), quality (3 items: quality, historic, longer lasting, 1.33) and price discounts (1 item, 1.23). Each factor score was dichotomized with “1” indicating that the factor theme was observed by a participant at least once anywhere on the website during each website visit.

Each of the eight themes from factor analysis, seven interactive features, and five social media links was regressed on tobacco product category (cigarettes, smokeless, cigars, e-cigarettes) in separate models using logistic regression. To reduce Type 1 errors due to multiple tests, a Bonferroni correction was used to determine statistical significance: for the themes from factor analysis, p < .0062 (.05/8); for seven interactive features p values < .007 (.05/7); for 5 social media sites p values < .01 (.05/5). Dichotomized data from all website visits (n = 699) were analyzed in each model and cigarette websites served as the reference group in all models as more participants visited and coded cigarette websites compared to the other tobacco categories. Statistical analysis was performed using SAS (version 9.4, SAS Institute Inc, Cary, North Carolina).

Results

Participants

Among the coders, 51% were male, the average age was 37, and age ranged from 21 to 59. Most participants reported smoking everyday (81%), 91% reported using the internet every day, and 83% reported using at least one social media site per day. Coders spent an average of 16.8 minutes on each webpage, 124.4 minutes on each website and visited an average of 9.3 pages per website. Total number of webpages coded each month by participants varied from 12 to 53.

Age and Tobacco Use Verification Process

Age to enter, age verification and tobacco user status varied across the 12 brand websites and across tobacco product type (Table 1). The majority of websites (75%) stated that visitors must be at least 21 years of age to enter. Three of the four e-cigarette sites required visitors to be at least 18 years of age. Most websites (58%) required that visitors register online and have age verified electronically before entering the brand website. The most common type of information requested during online registration was a verifiable name, address, date of birth and product preferences. Though all cigarette and smokeless websites required online registration, e-cigarette websites use a click-through age-verification process, requiring visitors to click a button before entering the websites indicating whether or not they were at least 18 or 21 years of age, and only Swisher Sweets verified age by asking visitors to manually enter their date of birth.

Table 1.

Requirements to Enter Each Tobacco Brand Website

Minimum age to enter website Type of age verification gate
Brand website 18+ 21+ Enter DOB Click-through Online registration
Cigarette
 Camel — X — — X
 Pall Mall — X — — X
 Marlboro — X — — X
 Newport — X — — X
E-cigarette
 Blu X — — X —
 Njoy X — — X —
 Vuse — X — X —
 V2 X — — X —
Cigar
 Black & Mild — X — — X
 Swisher Sweets — X X — —
Smokeless
 Copenhagen — X — — X
 Camel Snus — X — — X
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Click-through age-verification requires visitors to click a button indicating whether or not they met the minimum age required (18+ or 21+) for website entry.

Website Marketing Themes

All themes from factor analysis were observed at least once for each tobacco product category during the study period. Compared to cigarette websites, e-cigarette websites were twice as likely to feature themes related to sociability, success, party lifestyle, taste, and price discounts (Table 2). Compared to cigarette websites, e-cigarette brand websites were 4 times as likely to feature themes related to harm reduction and nearly 10 times as likely to feature themes related to innovation.

Table 2.

Odds Ratio and 95% Confidence Intervals Representing the Likelihood That Themes From Factor Analysis Were Observed on Each Type of Tobacco Brand Website

Social Innovation Successful Party lifestyle Taste Harm Reduction Quality Price discounts
Cigarettes — — — — — — — —
E-cigarettes n = 699 2.12*
(1.26–3.55)		 9.97*
(5.96–16.66)		 2.04*
(1.36–3.05)		 2.04*
(1.39–2.99)		 2.38*
(1.55–3.64)		 4.41*
(2.91–6.68)		 1.30
(0.74–2.30)		 1.78*
(1.21–2.60)
Cigars n = 699 7.28*
(2.80–18.96)		 0.95
(0.61–1.47)		 2.34*
(1.47–3.72)		 7.19*
(4.10–12.61)		 2.40*
(1.43–4.01)		 0.75
(0.44–1.29)		 0.89
(0.43–1.81)		 0.34*
(0.21–0.56)
Smokeless n = 699 1.39
(0.77–2.50)		 1.36
(0.86–2.16)		 1.70
(1.04–2.75)		 0.40*
(0.24–0.66)		 1.19
(0.73–1.92)		 1.21
(0.72–2.03)		 0.70
(0.32–1.54)		 1.69*
(1.06–2.68)
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n = total website visits during study period, cigarettes served as reference group, *p < .0062 based on Bonferroni correction.

Compared to cigarette websites, cigar brand websites were twice as likely to feature themes related to success and taste and seven times as likely to feature themes related to sociability and party lifestyle and less likely to feature themes related to price discounts (Table 2). In contrast, compared to cigarette websites, smokeless tobacco brand websites were almost twice as likely to feature themes related to price discounts and success and less likely than cigarette websites to feature themes related to party lifestyle.

Interactive Activities

All five interactive activities were observed at least once for each tobacco product category during the study period. Compared to cigarette websites, cigar websites were less likely to allow visitors to create user profiles, play interactive games, participate in contests and request coupons (Table 3). However, cigar websites were almost twice as likely to feature event information, such as a recent music performance, and almost three times as likely to allow visitors to select music as cigarette brand websites. Compared to cigarette brand websites, e-cigarette brand websites appear to have lower levels of interactivity as they were less likely to allow users to create user profiles, play interactive games, participate in contests, request coupons, and select music. Compared to cigarettes websites, smokeless tobacco websites were less likely to feature event information and music selection (Table 3).

Table 3.

Odds Ratio and 95% Confidence Interval Representing the Likelihood That Interactive Features Were Observed on Each Type of Tobacco Brand Website

Chat, blog, bulletin User profile Events Interactive games Contests Request coupons Select music
Cigarettes — — — — — — —
E-cigarettes n = 699 0.93
(0.59–1.47)		 0.50*
(0.33–0.75)		 0.74
(0.49–1.12)		 0.09*
(0.04–0.19)		 0.23*
(0.15–0.35)		 0.35*
(0.24–0.52)		 0.27*
(0.14–0.54)
Cigars n = 699 0.63
(0.35–1.13)		 0.35*
(0.21–0.59)		 1.86*
(1.18–2.93)		 0.24*
(0.12–0.47)		 0.48*
(0.31–0.76)		 0.09*
(0.05–0.17)		 2.65*
(1.58–4.46)
Smokeless n = 699 1.49
(0.89–2.50)		 1.18
(0.74–1.87)		 0.45*
(0.26–0.80)		 0.23
(0.11–0.46)		 0.58
(0.36–0.92)		 1.51
(0.93–2.46)		 0.17*
(0.06–0.50)
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n = total website visits during study period, cigarettes served as reference group, *p < .007 based on Bonferroni correction.

Social Media

External links to social media sites Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Twitter were observed at least once on all 12 brand websites during the study period. Compared to cigarette brand websites, e-cigarette brand websites were much more likely to direct website visitors to external social media sites. E-cigarette websites were 16 times more likely to feature a link to Twitter, almost 14 times more likely to feature a link Google+, 12 times more likely to feature a link to Facebook, and almost 11 times more likely to feature links to Instagram and YouTube (Table 4). Compared to cigarette websites, cigar brand websites were also more likely to feature social media links. Cigar websites were almost 8 times more likely to feature links to Twitter, five times as likely to feature links to Facebook and Instagram and three times as likely to feature a link to Google+ (Table 4).

Table 4.

Odds Ratio and 95% Confidence Interval Representing the Likelihood That Links to External Social Media Sites Were Observed on Each Type of Tobacco Brand Website

Facebook Google+ Instagram Twitter YouTube
Cigarettes — — — — —
E-cigarettes n = 699 12.29*
(7.60–19.86)		 13.92*
(7.38–26.26)		 10.95*
(6.11–19.61)		 16.32*
(9.22–28.87)		 10.56*
(5.59–19.96)
Cigars n = 699 5.23*
(3.10–8.83)		 3.39*
(1.64–7.03)		 5.12*
(2.69–9.72)		 7.98*
(4.31–14.75)		 1.59
(0.70–3.61)
Smokeless n = 699 1.10
(0.58–2.08)		 0.65
(0.22–1.91)		 0.51
(0.18–1.45)		 0.79
(0.32–1.90)		 0.93
(0.35–2.44)
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n = total website visits during study period, cigarettes served as reference group, *p < .01 based on Bonferroni correction.

Discussion

Findings from this study demonstrated that tobacco brand marketing websites for cigarette and smokeless brand websites restrict access to adults 21 years of age or older and require online registration to enter, however age verification gates were not consistent across tobacco product categories.

Restrictions on direct marketing to youth under the MSA do not apply to cigar, cigarillo and e-cigarette products, therefore it was anticipated that age verification gates across tobacco product categories to differed. All e-cigarette brand websites used click-through age-verification, which is consistent with an earlier study which found less stringent age verification gates on leading e-cigarette websites.4 When age verification gates are weak, youth are more easily able to enter websites and interact with website features.38–41 The Swisher Sweets brand website also lacks stringent age-verification as it allows visitors to simply type in a birthdate without online registration. While most brand websites require each visitor to self-report their legal name and age before entering through online registration, youth and adults could easily provide fictitious information and enter e-cigarette and cigar brand websites with one click. Given that some tobacco companies maintain more stringent age verification gates on their cigarette brand website and not on their e-cigarette brand websites,4 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should require that brand websites of all tobacco products under its regulatory authority use more stringent age verification gates by requiring all visitors be at least 21 years of age and register online prior to entry.

During online registration, visitors provide verifiable contact information and are asked about their tobacco product preferences. Website registration allows tobacco companies to provide follow-up marketing through direct mail and email promotions and allows companies to collect demographic information that can be used to refine and tailor marketing efforts to individual consumers.13,37 Understanding how tobacco companies use direct to consumer marketing channels is a crucial public health issue as greater exposure to tobacco company websites and tobacco mailings is associated with a greater likelihood of cigarette use and experimentation.42 Smoking cessation programs and quit lines should encourage smokers to avoid visiting tobacco brand websites, and to remove themselves from direct mail and email marketing lists.

Themes from factor analysis that were commonly observed on the websites included sociability, party lifestyle, success, taste, innovation, and price discounts. These findings suggest that tobacco brand websites normalize tobacco use by providing positive themes combined with opportunities such as chat rooms, bulletin boards and links to social media to hear about others’ experiences with the brand. Anti-tobacco messaging can counter the themes featured on pro-tobacco websites, for example, portraying cigar use as an impediment to social interactions and partying with others. Messages can also assert that e-cigarettes, while marketed as innovative, harm reduction devices, may pose a health concern as vapor produced by e-cigarettes can contain fine and ultra-fine particles that are deposited in the lung.43

Interactive activities were a common feature across tobacco websites. Interactive activities varied when comparing cigarette websites to other tobacco websites. Commonly featured activities allow visitors to interact with other users and post content on blogs, chat rooms and bulletin boards, create a user profile, play interactive games, participate in contests, request coupons, select music and seek information about events promoted by tobacco companies. These findings are similar to earlier research on cigarette and cigarillo brand websites.6,11,12,20 Tobacco related studies measuring website interactivity have focused mainly on tobacco control websites44,45 and a recent review of these websites found only modest levels of interactive content.2 This is troubling as previous research indicates that websites with higher levels of interactivity were associated with greater levels of message comprehensibility and information recall, which may be the result of users engaging in more active information processing.46 The availability of coupons online is especially concerning as exposure to tobacco coupons is associated with a greater level of smoking susceptibility among never smokers, and decreased confidence in quitting tobacco among current smokers.47 Given that tobacco companies are using interactive and bi-directional marketing strategies online, it is critical that tobacco control and tobacco regulatory agency websites increase usage of interactive content.

External links to social media sites were a common feature across all brand websites but were featured more often on e-cigarette and cigar brand websites compared to cigarette websites. Studies examining the presence of social media links embedded within tobacco brand websites are scarce. Understanding how tobacco brand websites and website visitors disseminate promotional messages through social media is a critical public health concern as these emerging communication channels bypass regulatory systems and traditional media gatekeepers to deliver messages directly to the public, often without health warnings. Though many social media sites ban tobacco advertisements,48 some brand websites encourage visitors to use official hashtags (eg, #bluNation), follow and like brand activity or share marketing messages on social media sites. External links to social media on brand websites can encourage users to join social networks that endorse pro-tobacco views. Given the extensive pro-tobacco content found across numerous social media sites, tobacco prevention campaigns should have an active and strategic presence across all social media platforms.

Limitations and Future Research

While we examined 12 leading tobacco brand websites, the content observed by participants during the study period may not be representative of all tobacco brand websites. The smokeless tobacco product category featured one moist smokeless tobacco product (Copenhagen) and one snus product (Camel Snus) brand, which may not be representative of all smokeless tobacco products. Data collection relied on coder perceptions of website themes and characteristics, which may differ based on participant demographics. Each participant was not required to code all 12 websites, however each website was coded by at least five coders when assigned on the Webcoder application. The current study focused on aggregated participant data to understand website content differences between product categories, which limited the ability to examine differences between participants and individual brand websites. Future research should compare website content by participant demographics to examine how content differs between users and also compare websites within tobacco product categories. During the study period the FDA did not regulate e-cigarette and cigar products, however website content may change as e-cigarettes and cigars are now under FDA regulatory authority. Future research should identify the presence of warning labels and smoking cessation resources across websites, and determine how tobacco brand websites requiring online registration track visitor behaviors and actions during website visits.

Conclusions

This study uncovered marketing strategies that may encourage experimentation or deter quit attempts among website visitors, thus it is imperative that these findings be incorporated into comprehensive efforts to reduce tobacco use. Counter-marketing communications can help adult tobacco users recognize the potentially persuasive influence of tobacco brand websites and the direct to consumer marketing materials may follow.

Funding

This paper was supported by grant #P50-CA-180905-01 from the National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). The NIH or FDA had no role in study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or writing of report. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors.

Declaration of Interests

None declared.

Acknowledgements

Research was supported by the USC Tobacco Center for Regulatory Sciences in Vulnerable Populations (Pentz/Samet), Project 1, “Diffusion of Marketing Messages about Tobacco Products through Social Media” (principal investigators: JU and TBC), grant P50CA180905 from the National Cancer Institute and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP).

References

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