Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2019 Dec 23;21(Suppl 1):S117-S124. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntz167.
The Food and Drug Administration announced intent to reduce the nicotine content in cigarettes. There is limited evidence on how reduced nicotine content cigarette (RNC) marketing affects product beliefs and use, and research on this is needed to inform regulations.
In an online experiment, 426 young adult cigarette smokers (aged 18-30 years) were randomized in a 2 (implicit: red package vs. blue package) × 2 (explicit: corrective message vs. no corrective message) design to view an advertisement for previously commercially available RNCs. Outcomes were advertisement content recall, product beliefs, and use intentions. Participants' responses to open-ended assessment of their beliefs about the stimuli were coded to identify prevailing themes.
Red packaging and corrective messaging were independently associated with greater advertisement content recall (p = .01 and p = .04, respectively). There were no significant main or interaction effects on product beliefs or use intentions. Controlling for condition, advertisement content recall was significantly associated with less favorable product beliefs (p < .001) and favorable product beliefs were associated with intent to use the product (p < .001). Open-ended responses converged on the finding that respondents were interested in RNCs, but expressed skepticism about effectiveness and value.
Brief exposure to an RNC advertisement with red packaging and corrective messaging were each independently associated with greater advertisement content recall. The results indicate: (1) interest and confusion among young adult smokers regarding RNCs, (2) beliefs about RNCs are influenced by marketing, and (3) beliefs are associated with intention to use RNCs.
Findings from this study demonstrate the importance of advertising effects on beliefs about RNC products and support the need to regulate advertising and labeling alongside product regulation. More detailed study of advertisement features that affect consumers' beliefs about RNCs and how they impact their processing of explicit messaging about product risks will be important to guide regulatory decision-making.
美国食品和药物管理局宣布有意降低香烟中的尼古丁含量。关于降低尼古丁含量香烟（RNC）的营销如何影响产品认知和使用的证据有限，需要对此进行研究，以为法规制定提供信息。
在一项在线实验中，426 名年轻成年吸烟者（年龄在 18-30 岁之间）被随机分为 2（隐性：红色包装与蓝色包装）×2（显性：纠正信息与无纠正信息）设计，以查看之前市售的 RNC 广告。结果是广告内容回忆、产品认知和使用意向。参与者对刺激物的信仰的开放式评估的回应被编码以确定主要主题。
红色包装和纠正信息分别与更高的广告内容回忆独立相关（p=0.01 和 p=0.04）。产品认知或使用意向没有显著的主效应或交互效应。控制条件后，广告内容回忆与更不利的产品认知显著相关（p<0.001），而有利的产品认知与使用产品的意向相关（p<0.001）。开放式回答的结果表明，受访者对 RNC 感兴趣，但对其效果和价值持怀疑态度。
对带有红色包装和纠正信息的 RNC 广告的简短接触与广告内容回忆的增加独立相关。结果表明：（1）年轻成年吸烟者对 RNC 的兴趣和困惑；（2）RNC 的认知受营销影响；（3）认知与使用 RNC 的意向相关。
这项研究的结果表明，广告对 RNC 产品认知的影响的重要性，并支持在产品监管之外，对广告和标签进行监管的必要性。对影响消费者对 RNC 认知的广告特征以及它们如何影响对产品风险的显性信息的处理的更详细研究，将有助于指导监管决策。
