Monitoring youth-appealing advertising on social media for the e-cigarette brand Lost Mary

Michelle Jeong; Ollie Ganz; Eugene M Talbot; Melanie LaVake; Olivia A Wackowski; Patrick V Barnwell; Scott I Donaldson; Cristine D Delnevo

doi:10.18332/tpc/195631

Monitoring youth-appealing advertising on social media for the e-cigarette brand Lost Mary

Tob Prev Cessat. 2024 Nov 29:10. doi: 10.18332/tpc/195631. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Michelle Jeong^{1

2}, Ollie Ganz^{1

2}, Eugene M Talbot¹, Melanie LaVake¹, Olivia A Wackowski^{1

2}, Patrick V Barnwell¹, Scott I Donaldson^{1

3}, Cristine D Delnevo^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, United States.
² Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy, Rutgers School of Public Health, Rutgers University, Piscataway, United States.
³ Division of General Internal Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, United States.

Abstract

Lost Mary is a popular e-cigarette brand among youth in the United States. This study aimed to analyze Lost Mary's branded social media activity and assess whether marketing efforts may have contributed to its youth appeal. We conducted a content analysis of 53 Lost Mary posts published on social media platforms from 2022 to 2023. More than a third of the posts included flavor descriptors, including fruit or ice, both popular flavors among youth. More than two-thirds of the posts used vibrant colors, and any human models included appeared to be young adults. Findings suggest that Lost Mary may target youth on social media platforms through the use of youth-appealing advertisement strategies (e.g. flavors). These findings highlight the need for increased monitoring of e-cigarette brand marketing on social media.

Keywords: Lost Mary; advertising; e-cigarettes; social media; youth appeal.

Grants and funding

FUNDING This work was supported by grant U01CA278695 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NCI or FDA.