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Original research
Nicotine pouch marketing strategies in the USA: an analysis of Zyn, On! and Velo
  1. Zongshuan Duan1,
  2. Lisa Henriksen2,
  3. Donna Vallone3,4,
  4. Jessica M Rath3,5,
  5. W Douglas Evans1,6,
  6. Katelyn F Romm1,
  7. Christina Wysota1,
  8. Carla J Berg1,6
  1. 1 Department of Prevention and Community Health, The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
  2. 2 Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA
  3. 3 Truth Initiative Schroeder Institute, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
  4. 4 School of Global Public Health, New York University, New York, New York, USA
  5. 5 Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  6. 6 Department of Global Health, The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Carla J Berg, Department of Prevention and Community Health, The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, Washington, District of Columbia, USA; carlaberg{at}gwu.edu

Abstract

Introduction Nicotine pouches are gaining popularity, yet their marketing is understudied.

Methods Using Numerator advertising data from January 2019 to September 2021 regarding three popular brands of nicotine pouch in the USA—Zyn (by Swedish Match, introduced in the USA in July 2016), On! (Altria, August 2016) and Velo (RJ Reynolds, July 2019)—we examined (1) general advertising characteristics (eg, media type, year); (2) ad content (ie, headlines and imagery themes); (3) prominent media channels (ie, specific websites, magazines, etc); and (4) ad expenditures.

Results There were 286 unique ads (Zyn: 44.4%; On!: 2.8%; Velo: 52.8%), 119 143 occurrences (Zyn: 3.5%; On!: 0.5%; Velo: 96.0%) and $24 774 650 total expenditures (Zyn: 4.7%; On!: 0.6%; Velo: 94.7%). The greatest proportion of ad occurrences and expenditures were accounted for by radio (75.9% and 28.2%, respectively) and television (16.2% and 56.5%), followed by mobile (0.5% and 7.2%) and online display (6.7% and 3.6%). Across ad occurrences and expenditures, prominent headline themes included ‘freedom’ (26.0% and 17.1%, respectively), ‘brand’ (9.6% and 18.6%) and ‘flavour’ (16.4% and 7.6%); images mainly featured the product alone (61.4% and 56.1%), text (16.2% and 24.6%) or men (8.7% and 8.6%); and prominent channel themes were entertainment (34.7% and 37.3%), news/weather (14.3% and 21.7%), business/finance (12.9% and 9.0%) and sports (9.5% and 1.0%). Zyn and On! prioritised online display and print; Velo prioritised radio and television. Zyn’s and Velo’s headlines focused on ‘freedom’, with Zyn also emphasising ‘brand’ and Velo ‘innovation’; On!’s headlines emphasised ‘flavour’.

Conclusions Regulatory efforts must be informed by surveillance of nicotine pouch marketing and impacts on consumer subgroups (eg, young people).

  • advertising and promotion
  • harm reduction
  • non-cigarette tobacco products
  • surveillance and monitoring
  • tobacco industry

Data availability statement

Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.

https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2022-057360

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    Data availability statement

    Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @RommKatelyn

    • Contributors Conceptualisation: ZD, LH, DV, JMR, WDE, KR, CW, CB. Methodology: ZD, CB. Software: ZD, CB. Validation: ZD, CB. Formal analysis: ZD, CB. Investigation: ZD, CB. Resources: CB. Data curation: ZD, CB. Writing - original draft: ZD, CB. Writing - review and editing: ZD, LH, DV, JMR, WDE, KR, CW, CB. Supervision: CB. Project administration: ZD. Funding acquisition: CB. Guarantor: CB.

    • Funding CB is supported by the US National Institutes of Health, specifically the National Cancer Institute (R01CA239178-01A1; MPIs: CB, Levine; R01CA179422-01; PI: CB; R01CA215155-01A1; PI: CB), the Fogarty International Center (1R01TW010664-01; MPIs: CB, Kegler), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/Fogarty (D43ES030927-01; MPIs: CB, Marsit, Sturua), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA054751-01A1; MPIs: CB, Cavazos-Rehg). WDE is supported by the National Cancer Institute (R01CA253013; PI: WDE). KR is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (F32DA055388-01; PI: Romm).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.