E-cigarette Social Media Marketing and Its Perceptions by Youth
ConditionVaping
Trial statusNot yet recruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age14-17
SponsorUniversity of Southern California
About this trial
The proposed study will conduct two randomized between-subject experiments among 6,000 adolescents (per each experiment) recruited nationwide to test the effects of audio-visual features of e-cigarette influencer marketing on perceptions of influencer credibility, e-cigarette harm perceptions, appeal, and susceptibility to e-cigarette use. This protocol represent the first experiment.
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
14-17 years of age,
English fluency,
Disqualifiers
14-17 years of age,
English fluency,
Trial design
Design model
Factorial
Treatments tested in this trial
Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other interventionExposure to promotional e-cigarette videos where influencers' age appearance (manipulated via an AI-based age filter) and the situational context alongside e-cigarette promotion (manipulated by background settings) are systematically varied. The videos will be embedded within an online survey platform, immediately preceding the outcome assessment.
Treatment groups
6,000 Participants
are divided into 12 treatment groups12
Treatment groupsSee each treatment group below.
Group A: Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitnessExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside entertainmentExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group C: Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fashionExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group D: Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside avatarExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group E: Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitnessExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group F: Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fashionExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group G: Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside avatarExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group H: Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes aloneExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group I: Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes aloneActive comparator 1 intervention
Group J: Experimental: Videos featuring two neutral profiles of older influencersPlacebo comparator 1 intervention
Group K: Experimental: Videos featuring two neutral profiles of younger influencersPlacebo comparator 1 intervention
Group L: Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside entertainmentExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Harm Perceptions of e-cigarettes
Responses to one question adapted from PATH, "Based on the videos you just watched, do you think using e-cigarettes for vaping nicotine is harmful to your health?" The outcome was assessed on the 5-point ordinal scale with the following response choices: Not at all harmful, slightly harmful, somewhat harmful, very harmful, extremely harmful.
Time frame
Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment2
Perceived appeal of e-cigarettes
Responses to the following questions: using e-cigarette is: not cool/cool, unattractive/attractive were assessed on the 7-point semantic differential scale with the word pairs anchored at each end. The scale was adapted from prior research. The items were combined (by summing all the non-missing values of the items) into one variable (α=0.94).
Time frame
Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment3
Susceptibility to e-cigarette use
Susceptibility to e-cigarette use was measured (among never-users of e-cigarettes), using the validated three-item scale (indicating peer influence, intention, and curiosity about e-cigarette use) adapted from PATH, and combined into one variable (α=0.93). Consistent with prior research, the measure was dichotomized with responses "definitely not" to all items being coded as "not susceptible" and responses "probably not," "probably yes", or "definitely yes" being coded as "susceptible.
Time frame
Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment4
Perceived influencer credibility
Perceived influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge) were assessed using a 0 (e.g., dishonest) -100 (e.g., honest) scale that has been validated in prior research.
Time frame
Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experimentSponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
University of Southern California
Lead sponsor
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov
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