Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI.
The Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2020 Oct 8;22(10):1823-1830. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntaa092.
Effective August 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required that nicotine addiction warnings be placed on ads for nicotine containing e-liquids. As per FDA comments, this provision pertains to visual ads communicated via social media, raising questions about compliance within the large e-liquid promotion community on Instagram.
This study examines use of warnings on promotional Instagram posts before and after provisions took effect on August 10, 2018. Netlytic was used to gather a sample of 500 promotional #eliquid and #ejuice posts from: May 2017, October 2017, March 2018, August 2018, and September 2018. The 1500 prewarning and 1000 postwarning posts were coded using content analysis. Changes in products and marketing strategies were also considered. Post volume was tracked monthly between May 2017 and February 2020.
In the prewarning period, nicotine warning statements were absent on all posts. Following August 10, 2018, FDA compliant warnings were present on 13.6% of posts. Among US-based posts, 36.4% used the warnings, with warnings more common on posts made by e-liquid brands (52.3%) and posts promoting e-liquids with nicotine (40.0%). Promotional strategies and products did not significantly change. The share of posts made by US Instagram users decreased by 11%, although total post volume continued to grow.
Many e-liquid promotion posts on Instagram remained noncompliant with nicotine warnings after FDA provisions took effect. The large volume of international users also limited the impact of FDA-mandated warnings on the social media environment.
Further guidance and enforcement are needed to ensure that US e-liquid marketers on visual social media platforms adhere to current provisions, particularly for individual social media users who are sponsored by industry. The inherently global span of social media also indicates the importance of a shared approach to marketing regulations. Further work is needed to assess enforcement strategies viable for the social media environment.
自 2018 年 8 月起，美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）要求在含有尼古丁的电子烟广告中添加尼古丁成瘾警告。根据 FDA 的评论，这一规定适用于通过社交媒体传播的视觉广告，这引发了人们对 Instagram 上庞大电子烟促销社区合规性的质疑。
本研究考察了 2018 年 8 月 10 日规定生效前后，在促销 Instagram 帖子上使用警告的情况。使用 Netlytic 收集了 2017 年 5 月、2017 年 10 月、2018 年 3 月、2018 年 8 月和 2018 年 9 月 500 个促销#eliquid 和#ejuice 帖子的样本。对 1500 个预警前和 1000 个预警后帖子进行了内容分析。还考虑了产品和营销策略的变化。在 2017 年 5 月至 2020 年 2 月期间，每月跟踪帖子数量。
在预警期内，所有帖子都没有尼古丁警告声明。2018 年 8 月 10 日之后，符合 FDA 规定的警告出现在 13.6%的帖子上。在美国发布的帖子中，有 36.4%使用了这些警告，电子烟品牌发布的帖子（52.3%）和宣传含尼古丁电子烟的帖子（40.0%）更常见。促销策略和产品没有明显变化。虽然帖子总数仍在继续增长，但美国 Instagram 用户发布的帖子数量减少了 11%。
FDA 规定生效后，Instagram 上许多电子烟促销帖仍不符合尼古丁警告规定。国际用户数量庞大也限制了 FDA 强制规定的警告对社交媒体环境的影响。
需要进一步的指导和执行，以确保美国电子烟营销人员在视觉社交媒体平台上遵守现行规定，特别是针对那些受行业赞助的个人社交媒体用户。社交媒体固有的全球性也表明，制定营销法规需要采取共同的方法。需要进一步努力评估社交媒体环境下可行的执法策略。
