As nicotine is highly addictive, marketing nicotine-containing products is regulated in most jurisdictions. Regulations include bans and regulation of certain types of advertising, and requirements for counter-advertising of facts generally not included in ads (generally, information about health effects, including addiction). Regulation is circumvented using less-regulated media, such as Facebook, less-regulated nicotine delivery products, such as e-cigarettes, and less-regulated ad types, such as industry ads which claim to discourage nicotine addiction but seem, according to independent studies, to promote teen nicotine use.

As marketing has shifted toward digital media and social platforms, newer nicotine-delivery products such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, have increasingly been promoted in ways that fall outside the scope of traditional broadcast or outdoor advertising regulations. Studies from several countries have found associations between youth exposure to such marketing and increased curiosity or susceptibility toward trying nicotine products.

However, researchers emphasize that these findings reflect associations observed in cross-sectional or survey-based analyses; they do not by themselves establish that marketing exposure causes product use, as multiple social and behavioural factors influence experimentation among adolescents.

Use of nicotine pouches increased from 1.5% to 1.8% in the same period.

Among youth who reported vaping, nearly nine in ten indicated that they used flavoured products.

U.S. federal health agencies note that longer-term declines in youth tobacco use reflect the combined effects of policy changes, such as raising the minimum legal sales age to 21 (Tobacco 21), strengthened enforcement, targeted public-health campaigns, and evolving product regulation.

Recent surveillance data from the United States show that current e-cigarette use among middle and high school students declined from 7.7% (approximately 2.13 million students) in 2023 to 5.9% (about 1.63 million) in 2024.

Advertising restrictions

Advertising restrictions typically shift advertising spending to unrestricted media. Banned on television, ads move to print; banned in all conventional media, ads shift to sponsorships; banned as in-store advertising and packaging, advertising shifts to shill (undisclosed) marketing reps, sponsored online content, viral marketing, and other stealth marketing techniques.

Another method of evading restrictions is to sell less-regulated nicotine products instead of the ones for which advertising is more regulated. For instance, while TV ads of cigarettes are banned in the United States, similar TV ads of e-cigarettes are not. However, in 2019 several major broadcasting groups, including CBS, WarnerMedia, and Viacom, announced that they would voluntarily cease accepting e-cigarette commercials, substantially reducing their presence on national television despite the absence of a federal ban.

Between 2020 and 2022, seven countries implemented comprehensive bans on tobaccos advertising, promotion and sponsorship, extending full advertising ban coverage (including point-of-sale) to additional 246 million people; by 2022 around 5.6 billion people (71 per cent of the global population) were protected by at least one MPOWER measure, with bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship the areas of greatest recent progress.

Nevertheless, the WHO Regional Office estimates that about 78 per cent of students aged 13–15 worldwide report being regularly exposed to some form of tobacco advertising, promotion or sponsorship. Other contemporary research including research from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, covering 2014-2020 indicates that adolescents in the United States continue to report high exposure to e-cigarette marketing, particularly via social-media platforms and other online media.

The most effective media are usually banned first, meaning advertisers need to spend more money to advertise to the same number of people. Comprehensive bans can make it impossible to effectively substitute other forms of advertising, leading to actual falls in consumption. However, skillful use of allowed media can increase advertising exposure; the exposure of U.S. children to nicotine advertising is increasing as of 2018.

Advertising types are described in order of increasing regulation below.

"Harm reduction" advertising Some tobacco companies have sponsored ads that claim to discourage teen smoking. Such ads are unregulated. However, these ads have been shown, in independent studies, to increase the self-reported likelihood that teens will start smoking. They also cause adults to see tobacco companies as more responsible and less in need of regulation. Unlike promotional ads, tobacco companies do not track the effects of these ads themselves. These ads differ from independently produced antismoking ads in that they do not mention the health effects of smoking, and present smoking as exclusively an "adult choice", undesirable "if you're a teen".

Tobacco companies have also funded "anti-smoking" groups. One such organization, funded by Lorillard, enters into exclusive sponsorship agreements with sports organisations. This means that no other anti-smoking campaigns are allowed to be involved with the sporting organisation. Such sponsorships have been criticised by health groups.

There is more exposure to industry-sponsored "antismoking" ads than to antismoking ads run by public health agencies.

User-created content With the restrictions placed on general advertising and sponsorship, tobacco companies have moved to new promotions to establish new customers and maintain existing ones. For example, Altria, known formerly as Philip Morris Companies, has a strategy of growth by "promotions that build brand equity through adult consumer experiences". The intent is to reinforce brand loyalty by building consumer communities.

Unpaid content on Facebook, created and sponsored by tobacco companies, is widely used to advertise nicotine-containing products, with photos of the products, "buy now" buttons and a lack of age restrictions, in contravention of ineffectively enforced Facebook policies.

Another example is Marlboro's "Outwit the West", a "by-invitation if you're a smoker" four-member team-based 'competition' with a series of cryptic brain teasers. The top twenty teams get invited to the Marlboro ranch, a location where it's "okay to smoke" and food, drinks and activities are paid for by the company. The team with the most correct answers shares a one million dollar prize. Thousands of teams participate.

More generally, Marlboro has been using its mailing database (estimated at 26 million in 2005)"Leader Of The Packs". BusinessWeek (30 October 2005). to promote directly with giveaways and general invitations to the Marlboro Ranch. Reinforcement is provided by branded products and by peers.

The EPC Cigar Company launched a social networking and internet campaign to market cigars in 2010.

Merchandise

Owning tobacco-branded merchandise is a risk factor for addiction. Its sale and display has therefore been restricted in some jurisdictions.

Some mini motorcycles have a cigarette or other tobacco trademark applied; such branded mini-motorcycles have been found in New Zealand in breach of tobacco advertising legislation.

Sponsorship Sponsorship has widely been used to circumvent bans on conventional advertising. Sponsors benefit from placing their advertising at sporting events, naming events after themselves, and recruiting political support from sporting agencies.

Movies Nicotine use is frequently shown in movies, historically often in return for six-figure (US$) sponsorship deals. More money is paid for a star actor to be shown using nicotine. Smokers in movies are generally healthier, more successful, and younger than actual smokers. Health effects, including coughing and addiction, are shown or mentioned in only a few percent of cases, and are less likely to be mentioned in films targeted at younger viewers.

The U.S. Cigarette Advertising and Promotion Code incorporated a voluntary ban on paid cigarette product placement circa 1991, and the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement banned the practice in the US, but this does not seem to have had an effect on the appearances of cigarettes in American movies. In 2003, some tobacco companies agreed to request that their brands not be used in film depictions of smoking, after a request from the California Attorney General. There have been calls for more restrictive ratings for films that show tobacco, and prefacing films showing tobacco use with mandatory health information ads. These have been opposed by members of the tobacco industry.

The Russian parliament banned non-essential smoking scenes in movies in 2001. The Indian government announced a ban on tobacco use and ads in Indian movies and TV in 2005, but backed down after lobbying by the film industry and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Voluntary self-regulation is typically used as a last resort to deter government regulation. Universal Pictures has a "Policy Regarding Tobacco Depictions in Films". In films anticipated to be released in the United States with a G, PG or PG-13 rating, smoking incidents (depiction of tobacco smoking, tobacco-related signage or paraphernalia) appear only when there is a substantial reason for doing so. In that case, the film is released with a health warning in end credits, DVD packaging, etc.Universal Pictures' "Policy Regarding Tobacco Depictions in Films". Universalpictures.com.

Since May 2007, the Motion Picture Association of America may give a film glamorizing smoking or depicting pervasive smoking outside of a historic or other mitigating context a higher rating.Film rating board to consider smoking as a factor. Mpaa.org.

There have also been moves to reduce the depiction of protagonists smoking in television shows, especially those aimed at children. For example, Ted Turner took steps to remove or edit scenes that depict characters in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo,Turner to ax smoking scenes from cartoons. MSNBC (21 August 2006). which are shown on his Cartoon Network and Boomerang television channels.

Video game content rating systems have also looked at the usage of tobacco in video games; a video game depicting the use of tobacco may have a higher rating.

The practice of tobacco movie sponsorship was satirized in the movie Thank You for Smoking.

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