E-cigarette, vape marketing lures PH youth

E-cigarette, vape marketing lures PH youth

(Second part)

First part: Vape: Flaws in law worsening youth ‘vapedemic’

MANILA, Philippines—“There are a lot of colors[;] it looks like a candy,” said a focus group participant from the Philippines, around age 18 to 24, to researchers for a study analyzing packaging designs and marketing approaches for a specific product.

Two other respondents said: “The ones we deemed attractive are colorful” and “The brand is really affordable, but the flavor makes it more appealing to the younger ones.”

INQUIRER.net randomly asked some individuals to guess the product being described for the study.

“It must be for food. Maybe ice cream?” said Gelo Regalado.

Matthew Espiritu, another respondent, said in Filipino: “What I thought of is the rainbow sour tape,” referring to a type of candy sold locally.

Two interviewees took a different route with their guesses: “Condom,” said Francis Devocion, while Nathan Busmente quickly answered in Filipino: “Medicine.”

The guesses were made based on keywords and phrases from the focus group participants’ responses, which included “colorful,” “flavor,” and “appealing to young ones.”

Participants linked the words to youth appeal, but none were able to correctly guess what product was being referred to.

How the youth interpret packaging

The study by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examined young adults’ perception of flavored cigarette packs, including those with flavor capsules, sold in the Philippines and Mexico.

According to the study, transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have aggressively invested in increasing tobacco sales in low- and middle-income countries.

Among the marketing strategies applied by tobacco companies to further promote their products are packaging design features, which target young adults who smoke and young people who have recently started smoking.

“TTCs target specific consumer

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