E-Cigarette Marketing Increases Tobacco Cravings

E-cigarettes have been considered by many to be a healthier alternative to using traditional tobacco products. The recent spike in e-cigarette marketing campaigns have however revealed that users are now feeling an increasing urge to smoke traditional cigarettes.

According to a study carried out by a team of researchers from Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, it has been discovered that by watching vaping commercials, former and current users may experience an increase in craving to smoke conventional cigarettes.

The study included 311 former smokers, 272 intermittent smokers and 301 daily smokers. All participants were made to watch 3 e-cigarette commercials where some of them had images of vaping while the others did not.

Once the commercials were shown, the participants were asked to express if they felt the urge to smoke. As part of the findings, daily smokers showed a greater desire to smoke traditional cigarettes after watching the vaping commercial. They also exhibited a higher tendency of doing so during the course of the study.

While intermittent smokers did not reveal any significant changes, former smokers were found to be more likely to resort to decreased intention to check their urges.

During the study, 22 per cent of the participants who didn't watch the vaping commercials were seen smoking a cigarette. Among those who saw the vaping commercials, 35 per cent of the participants were seen smoking a cigarette during the study.

The researchers concluded, "Given the sophistication of cigarette marketing in the past and the exponential increase in advertising dollars allotted to e-cigarette promotion in the past year, it should be expected that advertisements for these products created by big tobacco companies will maximize smoking cues in their advertisements, and if not regulated, individuals will be exposed to much more e-cigarette advertising on a daily basis."