(Burroughs Wellcome Fund)

The proposed research consists of three aims: (1) Document the advertising tactics used by cigarette and ENDS companies, (2) Identify which advertising tactics are associated with product appeal among youth, and (3) Test the extent to which the tactics identified in Aim 2 contribute to use intentions. The proposed research can inform regulatory action by (a) producing an inventory of tobacco marketing tactics that are uniquely appealing to youth, (b) specifying how tobacco marketing tactics change in response to FDA regulatory action, and (c) establishing a protocol that can be used in our future work, and by others, to continue monitoring the spectrum of advertising tactics tobacco companies use to appeal to youth. (PI: Moran)

(NIH/NIDA)

The overarching objective is to describe how cigarette companies use greenwashing to market their products, and test the effect of these tactics on both risk perceptions in an online sample and actual smoking behavior in a controlled laboratory study. We aim to: (1) Identify specific greenwashing tactics used in cigarette ads, determine their prevalence across brands and sub-brands, and determine changes in these tactics over time; (2) Test the extent to which the greenwashing tactics identified in Aim 1 contribute to inaccurate modified risk perception using an online survey; and (3) Test the effect of greenwashing on behavioral economic demand and smoking topography in a laboratory-controlled cigarette self-administration study. (PI: Moran/Johnson)

(FDA)

This study will analyze print media advertisement content and associated audiences for e-cigarette products, run in the United States, to understand how flavors, nicotine content and warning labels are depicted. To inform policy that can regulate ENDS, the FDA needs evidence that will deepen the current understanding of tobacco product content and design and the associated public health impact. This study will deepen the understanding of flavors in ENDS products and help inform product regulation including characterizing flavors and marketing/advertising. This project is funded as an administrative supplement from FDA Center for Tobacco Products to the Johns Hopkins Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (JH-CERSI, PI: Alexander). (Project PI: Kennedy)

(NIH: NIDA)

The project will uses controlled human lab studies, web-based experiments, and advertisement surveillance methods to gain a holistic understanding of novel oral nicotine pouches. Results will reveal product features and marketing tactics of novel oral nicotine pouches that influence perceptions, abuse liability, and use behavior among smokers and non-nicotine users (including youth) in order to inform FDA regulations of these emergent products. (PI:Spindle/Moran)

(FDA)

The overarching goals of the proposed work are to understand the mechanisms underlying effective tobacco education and prevention messages and to better understand how self-report measures can be used to evaluate these messages. We will triangulate data collected via neuroimaging (fNIRS), eyetracking, physiological response (galvanic skin response, facial electromyography, heart rate variability) and participant self-report to accomplish these goals among a diverse population of adolescents, young adults, and adult smokers. This project is funded as an administrative supplement from FDA Center for Tobacco Products to the Johns Hopkins Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (JH-CERSI, PI: Alexander). (Project PI: Moran)

(FDA via VCU)

Lab study assessing neural response to corrective information about nicotine harms