The June 2nd edition of the journal Pediatrics features a study of e-cigarette advertising on television from 2011 to 2013 (here). The research, led by Jennifer Duke of RTI International in North Carolina, found that exposure among youth (12-17 years old) to television ads for e-cigs increased about 2.5 fold, or 256% as reported by Dr. Duke.
The author casts the industry as villain: “It appears that
youth are being exposed to a sustained level of marketing about the benefits of
e-cigarettes.” (here). ABC TV was less subtle: “E-Cigarette
TV Ads Target Kids.” (here).
The authors report exposure to e-cig ads in terms of target
rating points (TRPs), a standard unit of measurement for the proportion of
people exposed to an ad and its frequency.
Duke and colleagues report that exposure of 12-17-year-olds
to e-cig advertising peaked in 2nd quarter 2013 at 347 TRPs. Young adults (18-24 years), for whom purchase
of e-cigarettes is legal almost everywhere, had peak exposure of 611 TRPs in
2013, indicating much higher exposure than youth.
The authors fail to note that older adults had far higher
peak levels of exposure to e-cig ads. My
table contains the estimated peak TRPs for each age group in Figure 1.
| Peak Exposure to E-cigarette Television Advertising (TRPs) By Age Groups in 2nd Quarter 2013 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Age Group (years) | Population (millions) | Peak Exposure (TRPs) |
| 12-17 | 24 | 347 |
| 18-24 | 30 | 611 |
| 55-34 | 41 | 611 |
| 35-54 | 86 | 820 |
| 55+ | 77 | 850 |
This data shows that 234 million adults 18 years or older
were the primary recipients of e-cigarette advertising.
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