Although conventional tobacco advertising is not easy to find nowadays, advertising for electronic cigarettes (e-cigarette) seems to be popping up more and more on the Internet, in newspapers and magazines, and in retail stores. We know that exposure to conventional cigarette advertising certainly influences the smoking habits of older children and adolescents, but what about e-cigarettes?
Singh et al. (10.1542/peds.2015-4155) opted to look at data from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey to measure the association between e-cigarette advertisement exposure and current e-cigarette use. Teen respondents noted the degree of exposure from “never/rarely” to “most of the time/always”—and as you might expect, the greater the exposure, the greater the e-cigarette use.
Retail stores showed the most association between advertising and actual youth usage, raising a need for far more comprehensive strategies to prevent and control this newer type of smoking—which may mean stricter bans on advertising than currently exist. Seeing e-cigarette advertising vaporize may be just what the doctor ordered.
