Research: Tobacco Advertising Sweeping Social Media, Young People Becoming Key Targets For Promotion

Recently, according to The Guardian, a study showed that billions of social media users have browsed posts promoting nicotine bags and e-cigarettes. Especially young people, they have become the focus of advertising for smoking alternatives.
This study was launched by The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and mainly reveals how companies adopt an "aggressive" strategy to promote smoking alternatives through discounts, giveaways, and paid influencers.
The agency has issued a warning that these advertisements are constantly sweeping social media, attracting countless young people to browse. The report states that 40% of the audience is under 25 years old, and 16 million viewers are under 18 years old. Most of the views come from Instagram.
In the first study investigating the scale of such content, the charity examined three brands: Velo, nicotine bags sold by British American Tobacco Company; Vuse is also an electronic cigarette sold by BAT; IQOS, a heated tobacco product, is sold by Philip Morris International, a manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes.
A spokesperson for British American Tobacco stated that the company has clearly stated that its e-cigarettes and nicotine bags are "only suitable for adult smokers and nicotine users.". They stated that it requires anyone who establishes a brand partnership with it to be at least 25 years old and "ensure that the vast majority of fans are over 18 years old".
A spokesperson for Philip Morris stated that due to the inability to fully analyze the report, a comprehensive response could not be provided. A spokesperson said, "Responsible sales and marketing are the top priority of PMI." They stated that the company "communicates its products to adult audiences.".
Jolonda Richardson, CEO of the smokeless children's movement, said that this report "should sound an alarm for improper marketing.".
The charity organization stated that it hopes social media companies will take legal responsibility and proactively identify and remove any illegal tobacco and nicotine product marketing on its platform.
Further research shows that these posts promoting smoking alternatives have been viewed over 3.4 billion times on social media platforms. This data fully exposes the important position of the smoking substitute market in social media advertising and highlights the urgent need for regulation and restraint.