Protecting historically marginalized groups or targeted marketing? A computational analysis of individuals engaging with public and protected cigar-branded tweets
Jiaxi Wu , Lynsie R. Ranker , Juan Manuel Origgi , Jianqi Ma , Deyan Hao , Emelia J. Benjamin , Jennifer Cornacchione Ross , Ziming Xuan , Derry Wijaya , Jessica L. Fetterman , Traci Hong
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction
Swisher Sweets, a leading brand of little cigars and cigarillos in the United States, switched its Twitter account to protected status, limiting access to its tweets. This study examines how the protected status of Swisher Sweets tweets influences post engagement, aiming to inform regulatory strategies for branded tobacco promotions on social media.
Method
Using natural language processing, we predicted the demographics of individuals replying to Swisher Sweets' public and protected tweets. Engagement with public versus protected tweets was compared using a Mann-Whitney U test, and a mixed-effects logistic regression assessed the likelihood of different demographics replying to each tweet type. Chi-square analyses examined word frequencies related to any flavor, concept flavors, and characterizing flavor in replies to public and protected tweets.
Results
Overall, 16 % of individuals replying to Swisher Sweets' tweets were predicted to be under 21, and 65 % were Black. No significant difference was found in average reply counts to public versus protected tweets (p = .78). Black individuals were 2.61 times more likely than White individuals to engage with protected tweets after the status change (OR = 2.61, 95 % CI [1.36, 5.06], p = .004). Replies to protected tweets contained more words related to any flavor (adjusted p < .001) and concept flavors (adjusted p < .001) compared to public tweet replies.
Conclusions
Our study suggests that the protected status on Twitter was ineffective in preventing underage engagement with Swisher Sweets’ branded tweets and may facilitate targeted marketing among Black individuals.
Implications
More stringent age verification procedures and promotional regulatory measures are needed to prevent targeted tobacco brand marketing on social media.
期刊介绍:
Drug and Alcohol Dependence is an international journal devoted to publishing original research, scholarly reviews, commentaries, and policy analyses in the area of drug, alcohol and tobacco use and dependence. Articles range from studies of the chemistry of substances of abuse, their actions at molecular and cellular sites, in vitro and in vivo investigations of their biochemical, pharmacological and behavioural actions, laboratory-based and clinical research in humans, substance abuse treatment and prevention research, and studies employing methods from epidemiology, sociology, and economics.