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Schedule:
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Congressional C (Hyatt Regency Washington)
* noted as presenting author
Introduction:
The progress of tobacco control efforts resulted in significant reduction in cigarette smoking among U.S. adults over the past five decades, but has slowed down in recent years. Print advertisements for non-cigarette tobacco products (NCTP) coupled with other marketing approaches such as appealing packaging, point-of-purchase marketing, flooding of ads in magazines, and increased availability are likely to expand the market for tobacco usage and renormalize smoking and tobacco use. Whereas prior research has identified persuasive themes in tobacco product ads, little research has comparatively examined the use of persuasive themes across tobacco product marketing. Given that advertising is a major site of ideological influence, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of NCTP advertising in magazines to better understand the multiple facets of persuasive appeals utilized by tobacco companies to market NCTPs.
Methods:
We conducted a content analysis of NCTP print advertisements in consumer magazines for persuasive and rhetorical themes. The sample consisted of distinct NCTP ads that appeared in consumer magazines from August 2012-August 2013, obtained from Kantar Media. Using deductive approach to coding, we operationalized content categories based on prior content analyses, and included the physical composition of the ad (including size of ad, image, slogan, product placement, branding, and setting) and the content of the ad (including rhetorical themes, persuasive themes, and marketing tactics).
Results:
The results demonstrated that the largest number of unique ads were found for moist snuff (n=44, with an ad expenditure of $27.14 million) followed by ads for e-cigarettes (n=27, $39.83 million), cigars (n=21, $8.96 million), and snus (n=8, $6.14 million). The most frequently used rhetorical themes were pathos (ads designed to elicit an emotional response) for cigar (57%) and moist snuff (80%) ads, and logos (use of logic or facts as evidence for ad claims) for e-cigarette (85%) and snus (50%) ads. Similarly, the most frequent persuasive themes were ads that extol a high quality product, available at a good economic deal, with high consumer satisfaction for cigar and moist snuff ads. For e-cigarette and snus ads, the most frequent themes conveyed comparative claims portraying the advertised product as different, better, and/or less risky than conventional cigarettes or smokeless tobacco.
Conclusions:
These findings provide practical implications for development of media literacy based counter-advertising interventions that aim at helping youth/young adults (a) become more adept at identifying marketing strategies for snus and e-cigarettes, and (b) make more critical decisions about tobacco product use.
The progress of tobacco control efforts resulted in significant reduction in cigarette smoking among U.S. adults over the past five decades, but has slowed down in recent years. Print advertisements for non-cigarette tobacco products (NCTP) coupled with other marketing approaches such as appealing packaging, point-of-purchase marketing, flooding of ads in magazines, and increased availability are likely to expand the market for tobacco usage and renormalize smoking and tobacco use. Whereas prior research has identified persuasive themes in tobacco product ads, little research has comparatively examined the use of persuasive themes across tobacco product marketing. Given that advertising is a major site of ideological influence, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of NCTP advertising in magazines to better understand the multiple facets of persuasive appeals utilized by tobacco companies to market NCTPs.
Methods:
We conducted a content analysis of NCTP print advertisements in consumer magazines for persuasive and rhetorical themes. The sample consisted of distinct NCTP ads that appeared in consumer magazines from August 2012-August 2013, obtained from Kantar Media. Using deductive approach to coding, we operationalized content categories based on prior content analyses, and included the physical composition of the ad (including size of ad, image, slogan, product placement, branding, and setting) and the content of the ad (including rhetorical themes, persuasive themes, and marketing tactics).
Results:
The results demonstrated that the largest number of unique ads were found for moist snuff (n=44, with an ad expenditure of $27.14 million) followed by ads for e-cigarettes (n=27, $39.83 million), cigars (n=21, $8.96 million), and snus (n=8, $6.14 million). The most frequently used rhetorical themes were pathos (ads designed to elicit an emotional response) for cigar (57%) and moist snuff (80%) ads, and logos (use of logic or facts as evidence for ad claims) for e-cigarette (85%) and snus (50%) ads. Similarly, the most frequent persuasive themes were ads that extol a high quality product, available at a good economic deal, with high consumer satisfaction for cigar and moist snuff ads. For e-cigarette and snus ads, the most frequent themes conveyed comparative claims portraying the advertised product as different, better, and/or less risky than conventional cigarettes or smokeless tobacco.
Conclusions:
These findings provide practical implications for development of media literacy based counter-advertising interventions that aim at helping youth/young adults (a) become more adept at identifying marketing strategies for snus and e-cigarettes, and (b) make more critical decisions about tobacco product use.