Attitudinal Spillover from Misleading Natural Cigarette Marketing: An Experiment Examining Current and Former Smokers' Support for Tobacco Industry Regulation.

Stefanie K Gratale,Angeline Sangalang,Joseph N Cappella,Erin K Maloney

doi:10.3390/ijerph16193554

Abstract

This research examined the influence of natural cigarette advertising on tobacco control policy support, and the potential for misbeliefs arising from exposure to cigarette marketing to affect such support. Ample research indicates that natural cigarettes such as Natural American Spirit (NAS) are widely and erroneously perceived as safer than their traditional counterparts because of their marketed “natural” composition. Yet regulatory action regarding natural cigarette marketing has been limited in scope, and little research has examined whether misleading product advertising affects support for related policy, an important component of the policy process. Here, we administered a large-scale randomized experiment (n = 1128), assigning current and former smokers in the United States to an NAS advertising condition or a control group and assessing their support for tobacco industry regulation. Results show that exposure to NAS advertising reduces support for policies to ban potentially misleading terminology from cigarette advertising, and these effects are stronger for daily smokers. Further, misinformed beliefs about the healthy composition of NAS partially mediate effects on policy support. Yet interestingly, exposure to NAS marketing does not reduce support for policies to establish standards for when certain terms are permissible in cigarette advertising. The results of this analysis indicate potential spillover effects from exposure to NAS advertising in the realm of support for regulatory action pertaining to tobacco industry marketing.

Highlights

Comedians have quipped that “organic” and “all-natural” are grocery store jargon for “double the price”
Our data further show that the depressive effects of Natural American Spirit (NAS) advertising exposure on policy support may be partially mediated by the acceptance of inaccurate claims concerning the healthy composition of NAS cigarettes
Respondents who are exposed to NAS advertising and believe the product to be of healthier composition than traditional cigarettes should have no inherent opposition to requiring that products must convey reduced risk in order to be called “natural” or “additive-free”; yet they should likely oppose an outright ban of such terms from the marketing of a product if they believe that product represents a safer, purer alternative to traditional cigarettes

Summary

Introduction

Comedians have quipped that “organic” and “all-natural” are grocery store jargon for “double the price”. For many people, these concepts represent tangible attributes of product healthfulness [1]—a dangerous proposition when potentially deadly products like cigarettes are marketed as natural or organic. Misleading product advertising has long been a concern for regulatory agencies [2,3,4,5], and when product advertising promotes inaccurate health information, regulatory policy becomes especially important for addressing related health behaviors [6,7]. We aim to explore the attitudinal effects of health misinformation promoted by misleading advertising. We explore the process in which potentially misleading natural cigarette advertising and the misbeliefs that can arise from it influence public support for policies to regulate such advertising. We consider the marketing of Natural American Spirit (NAS), a leading natural cigarette brand

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion