High Impact E-cigarette Advertisement Features

This randomized controlled trial aims to examine the effects of high-impact e-cigarette advertisement features among young adults of various tobacco-use statuses. Previous research on examining the effects of e-cigarette advertisement features found that flavor-related features (e.g., flavor-associated product color, name and image, flavor sensation descriptor, and flavor choice claim) may have the largest impact on shaping young adults' perceptions and use intentions of e-cigarettes. No research so far has solely focused on examining the effects of those high-impact flavor-related advertisement features. The present study assessed the effects of high-impact flavor-related advertisement features, including flavor descriptor name, e-cigarette product color (which indicates flavors), flavor-related image, flavor sensation descriptor, and flavor choice claim on perceptions and behavioral intentions among a large online sample of young adults aged 18-30 who either smoke cigarettes or do not use tobacco products. The study is a six-group RCT with parallel assignments that will be delivered through an online self-administered questionnaire consisting of one session. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of six trial arms: 1) dark gray product with tobacco flavor name, 2) dark gray product with strawberry flavor name, 3) colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name, 4) colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name and strawberry image, 5) colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name, strawberry image, strawberry flavor sensation descriptor, and 6) colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name, strawberry image, strawberry flavor sensation descriptor, and flavor choice claim. Participants will be exposed to one advertisement corresponding to the assigned condition, and answer survey questions immediately after message exposure.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Vaping Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Control ad with dark gray product with tobacco flavor name; Behavioral: Dark gray product with strawberry flavor name; Behavioral: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name; Behavioral: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name and image; Behavioral: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor features; Behavioral: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor features and choice claim

Detailed Description

The FDA considers the marketing plans of new e-cigarette products for premarket tobacco product application approval. Flavor-related advertisement features may entice young adults who do not use tobacco products to use the products but may also generate complete product switching interests among young adults who smoke cigarettes. This study tested the effects of several high-impact e-cigarette advertisement features related to flavors to inform the FDA's policymaking and public health preventive messages.

Setting: The trial will be an experiment delivered through an online self-administered questionnaire consisting of one session over 20 minutes.

Recruitment: Participants will be recruited from the research company Qualtrics from its research panels.

Informed Consent: Participants will provide online consent prior to taking the survey.

Randomization: After providing informed consent and answering pre-exposure questions, the investigator will use Qualtrics programming to randomize participants into one of the six trial conditions. The randomization will use least fill for the allocation of conditions where if the counts for the conditions were equal, the survey would assign the condition sequentially.

Assessment: Participants will take part in one session (estimated at about 20 mins): participants will answer questions assessing tobacco use status, cigarette smoking quit intentions and attempts (only asked young adults who smoke cigarettes), e-cigarette use, and other tobacco product use. They will then view one e-cigarette advertisement for at least 12 seconds and report immediate outcomes, including perceptions and behavioral intentions related to the e-cigarette product they see in the advertisement.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 3083
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New Jersey
    • New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, 08901
      • Rutgers University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Three groups of young adult subjects will be included in the study. The first group is those who are exclusive cigarette smokers (n=1000), defined as those who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and have smoked at least one cigarette in the past 30 days but have not used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. The second group is those who are dual users of cigarettes and e-cigarettes (n=1000). Those in this group have smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and have smoked a cigarette and also used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days. The third group is those who are non-tobacco users (n=1000), defined as those who have never used any tobacco product before or have never "regularly" used tobacco products before and are currently not using any tobacco products (in the past 30 days).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any subjects not meeting the inclusion criteria will be excluded from the study. Individuals will be further excluded if they do not provide consent to participate in the study.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

6

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Control ad: Dark gray product with tobacco flavor name	Behavioral: Control ad with dark gray product with tobacco flavor name; The e-cigarette ad with a dark gray product with a tobacco flavor name
Experimental: Dark gray product with strawberry flavor name	Behavioral: Dark gray product with strawberry flavor name; The e-cigarette ad with a dark gray product with a strawberry flavor name
Experimental: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name	Behavioral: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name; The e-cigarette ad with a colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name
Experimental: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name and strawberry image	Behavioral: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name and image; The e-cigarette ad with colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name and strawberry image
Experimental: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor features; Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name + strawberry image + strawberry flavor sensation descriptor	Behavioral: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor features; The e-cigarette advertisement with colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name, strawberry image, and strawberry flavor sensation descriptor
Experimental: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor features and choice claim; Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name + strawberry image + strawberry flavor sensation descriptor + flavor choice claim	Behavioral: Colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor features and choice claim; The e-cigarette ad with colorful (strawberry color) product with strawberry flavor name, strawberry image, strawberry flavor sensation descriptor, and flavor choice claim

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Intentions of Using the E-cigarette	A single item measuring the intentions of using the e-cigarette shown in the ad, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took approximately 12 seconds). Response options are from 0 (Extremely unlikely ) to 10 (Extremely likely).	Immediately after exposure
Intentions of Switching Completely to the E-cigarette	A single item measuring participants' intentions of switching completely to the e-cigarette shown in the ad, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took approximately 12 seconds). Response options are from 0 (Extremely unlikely ) to 10 (Extremely likely). This question is only asked among those who smoke cigarettes.	Immediately after exposure

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Intentions of Using the E-cigarette Compared to Cigarettes	A single item measuring the intentions of using the e-cigarette shown in the ad compared to smoking cigarettes, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took approximately 12 seconds). Response options are from 0 (Much less likely ) to 10 (Much more likely).	Immediately after exposure
Intentions of Using the E-cigarette Compared to Other E-cigarettes	A single item measuring the intentions of using the e-cigarette shown in the ad compared to using other e-cigarette products, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took approximately 12 seconds). Response options are from 0 (Much less likely ) to 10 (Much more likely).	Immediately after exposure
Ad Appeal	A 3-item scale for those who do not use tobacco, measuring to what extent participants perceive the ad they saw to be appealing, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took 12 seconds), including liking the ad, curious about the product shown in the ad, and interest in using the product shown in the ad. Response options are from 0 (Dislike very much ) to 10 (Like very much) for ad liking and 0 (Strongly disagree) to 10 (Strongly agree) for the other two items. Average scores of the three items were calculated (0-10). A 4-item scale for those who smoke cigarettes, including the same 3-item scale and an additional single item measuring the agreement on whether the ad makes them want to completely switch to the e-cigarette shown in the ad. Response options are from 0 (Strongly disagree) to 10 (Strongly agree). Average scores of the four items were calculated (0-10).	Immediately after exposure
Perceived Absolute Harm of Using the E-cigarette	A single item measuring the participants' perception of having health problems from using the e-cigarette shown in the ad, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took 12 seconds). Response options are from 0 (Extremely unlikely ) to 10 (Extremely likely).	Immediately after exposure
Perceived Absolute Addictiveness of Using the E-cigarette	A single item measuring the participants' perception of becoming addicted to using the e-cigarette shown in the ad, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took 12 seconds). Response options are from 0 (Extremely unlikely ) to 10 (Extremely likely).	Immediately after exposure

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sensory Appeal of the E-cigarette	Exploratory outcome: Four items measuring the agreement with the sensory appeal of the e-cigarette shown in the ad, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took 12 seconds): the taste of the e-cigarette would: 1) be harsh, 2) be sweet, 3) be fruity, and 4) have a tobacco taste. Response options are from 0 (Strongly disagree) to 10 (Strongly agree). Average scores of the four items were calculated (0-10). The higher values indicating stronger sensory appeal of e-cigarettes.	Immediately after exposure
Positive Expectancy of Using the E-cigarette	Exploratory outcome: A single item measuring the agreement with the positive expectancy (I think I might enjoy, experience pleasure, or feel good using this e-cigarette/vape product) of using the e-cigarette shown in the ad, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took 12 seconds). Response options are from 0 (Strongly disagree) to 10 (Strongly agree).	Immediately after exposure
Negative Expectancy of Using the E-cigarette	Exploratory outcome: A single item measuring the agreement with the negative expectancy (I think I might feel bad, sick or embarrassed using this e-cigarette/vape product) of using the e-cigarette shown in the ad, assessed immediately after exposure (exposure took 12 seconds). Response options are from 0 (Strongly disagree) to 10 (Strongly agree).	Immediately after exposure

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• Collaborators: National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 17, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 10, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): February 10, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 22, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 22, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): November 26, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 9, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 16, 2026
• Last Verified: December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Young adults; Vaping; E-cigarette advertisement; Complete switching; Cigarette smoking cessation; E-cigarette marketing; Tobacco policy
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Smoking; Health Behavior; Vaping; Tobacco Use Cessation; Pharmaceutical Preparations
• Other Study ID Numbers: Pro2024002290; R00CA242589 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No