Background
Peer crowd and its effect on tobacco use behavior
Importance of young adults in tobacco-related communication
Methods
Baseline questionnaire
Peer crowd and description | Sample images representing crowd | Example advertisements |
---|---|---|
Mainstream: - Not motivated by social status - Prioritize family, career, or religion over socializing - Prefer a small number of close friends over many acquaintance | A. Blu magazine advertisement featuring a woman sitting indoors [35] B. Blu Instagram advertisement featuring two men and a woman sitting outdoors on dried leaves [36] C. VaporFi Instagram advertisement featuring a woman [37] D. Green Smoke website advertisement featuring a mature couple sitting together [38] | |
Young Professional: - Prioritize career and networking over partying - Won’t engage in behaviors that risk career - Dress well (not necessarily trendy) | E. Mistic website advertisement featuring four young adults in a meeting room [39] F. Ploom website advertisement featuring a White woman [40] G. NJOY Twitter advertisement featuring a man on a rooftop [41] H. Blow Vapor Facebook advertisement featuring a man wearing a brown suit in front of a tiled wall indoors [42] | |
Hip Hop: - Believe they have to overcome a disproportionate amount of struggles - Value strength, honor, and respect - Clothing/style are important status symbols | I. Blu magazine advertisement featuring a man in a casino [43] J. NJOY Instagram advertisement with two young adults outdoors [44] K. VaporFi Instagram advertisement with a female with dreadlocks in a car [45] L. VaporFi Instagram advertisement featuring a man sitting by a tree [46] | |
Hipster: - Counter-culture groups - Value individuality and creativity - Prioritize supporting local art, music and other creatives - Trendsetters | M. Blu magazine advertisement featuring a woman with tattooed arm [47] N. Blu Instagram advertisement featuring a young man with a nose ring [48] O. Fin magazine advertisement featuring a woman posing in front of an old-fashioned airplane [49] P. V2 Facebook advertisement featuring a man with sunglasses and moustache [50] Q. MarkTen magazine advertisement featuring an old man with sunglasses [51] R. ProVape Facebook advertisement with a senior woman wearing a large necklace [52] | |
Partier: - Highly value social status - Prioritize going out to bars and parties - Clothing and style are important status symbols, and take great care of their appearance | S. Blu magazine advertisement with three young men posing in a photo booth [53] T. Blu magazine advertisement with a young woman posing on a chair [54] U. Playboy magazine advertisement with a young man with many female hands and a close-up of a woman’s face [55] V. Cigavette Instagram advertisement with a young woman lying on a bed [56] |
Stimuli
Changes in stimuli during the study
Interviews
Analyses
Results
Peer Crowda | Total | Gender | Tobacco Products used in the past 30 days | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Female | Male | Cig onlyb | E-cig onlyb | Cig & E-cig | Cig & SLT | Cig & E-cig & SLT | ||
Hipster | 23 | 9 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 7 |
Partier | 16 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 7 |
Young Professional | 13 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 5 |
Mainstream | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
Hip Hop | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 59 | 14 | 45 | 4 | 1 | 31 | 3 | 20 |
Participants responded more favorably to advertisements featuring the matching peer crowd
On the other hand, seeing a Hipster advertisement, he focused more on the argument of the ad, saying ‘the caption says, enjoy your favorite product. So, he’s clearly enjoying his favorite product … the goal of this advertisement is to appeal to the cigarette market’. Similarly, Harry (18 year old, male, Partier) noticed peer crowd cues such as ‘party vibe’ and ‘coolness, sunglasses, summer, wind blowing her hair, elegance’ from advertisements featuring the matching (Partier) characters, but seeing a non-matching advertisement (Mainstream; Table 1-B) what he first mentioned was mostly demographic cues: ‘Three white people … hanging out, I see leaves fall. They are young’.[T] his girl lives in an upscale LA neighborhood, drives like, probably a newer Audi, maybe a newer BMW … Definitely black, leather interior, like rims … She’s most likely a model and she’s probably pretty wealthy. And, she goes to a lot of celebrity parties … I grew up around these people in [Los Angeles].
Authenticity is important in shaping the response toward advertisements
Device type featured in the advertisements is important
Such accounts indicate that personal experiences with products informed participants’ perception of manufacturers and subsequently, to the advertisements. For example, as a daily user of large vaporizers, Tim found ‘tanks’ and ‘mods’ were ‘more effective than the cigarette looking ones’. Ian (using cigarette/large vaporizer/smokeless tobacco) remembered seeing Blu cigalike marketing in TV and seeing their products in ‘pretty much every store’, but mentioned that cigalikes are ‘garbage’, of ‘very low quality’ and left a bad taste ‘like burnt popcorn’, which drove him to use larger vaporizers.I don’t really see the appeal in this either. I just think it’s because my opinion is a little bit biased because I hate these little things [indicating the device] … I think they’re like the biggest waste, I think they’re stupid. They didn’t really work.
[P] eople who smoke Blus, I feel like they don’t know what they’re doing. Like, they don’t know, they haven’t done the research... oh look, there’s an ad, I saw that, let me go try these out. … I feel like they just got sucked in. (Noah, cigarette/large vaporizer user)
Demographics cues may also affect identification with matching peer crowd advertisements
For some people, a matching peer crowd with mismatched demographic group still generated favorable responses. For example, when viewing another advertisement with a Hipster female (Table 1-M), a male Hipster participant remarked:There’s like, a business model type. Has, you know, wise elegancy, definitely clean cut [peer crowd cues]. So, I feel like this would target me more as the other one [featuring a Mainstream female at home], based on the representation of the male [demographic cue], clean cut, business type model [peer crowd cues].
However, many participants were also quite attuned to the age of the advertisement characters. Advertisements featuring older adults were more difficult to relate to. William (20 year old, male, Partier) described an advertisement with a senior man using e-cigarette (Table 1-Q) as:[E] ven though the girl's a little bit older, she still looks pretty relatable to people like me. … Tattoos make me think she's, like - she doesn't really - like, even if people don't like tattoos, it's very visible, so it doesn't really matter to her. – Victor (25 year old, male, Hipster)
Even when seeing an advertisement featuring a matching peer crowd, which might garner a more favorable response, age difference seemed to interfere with identification with the character and the message. Seeing an advertisement with a senior Hipster female (Table 1-R), Xena (24 year old, female, Hipster) mentioned ‘I am noticing that is an older woman, which is unusual for a vaping advertisement … definitely not something targeted towards me, obviously’.It's an older gentleman of sorts. It seems like he would be a cool grandpa. … I would say [this is for] more older adults. Adults maybe, like, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and so on. The photo also looks like he's around those ages as well.