Promotion of e-cigarettes by providers and users’ feedback in some social networks in Vietnam in 2019

Abstract

E-cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been using social media as an informative platform to promote e-cigarettes for their users. The most popular social media in Vietnam were YouTube and Facebook. The information and knowledge could affect e-cigarette user’s belief and the way they make a decision. Despite this, there is a gap in our knowledge of policy maker’s in user’s perceptions about how they feel with promotion on social media platform in Vietnam. This study aimed to describe the promotion of e-cigarettes by providers on some social networks and to describe electronic cigarette users’ feedback about videos/posts of providers on some social networks in Vietnam in 2019. Searches in major electronic databases, including Facebook and YouTube, were conducted using the following search terms: “electronic cigarette,” “electronic vaporizer,” “electronic pod,”. The video/post was selected if they’re from providers and include advertising content on the social media platform during 2019. Of the 104 e-cigarette related videos/posts retrieved, there were 27% on Facebook and 28% on YouTube. The three most common advertising contents were beneft of using e-cigarette, negative health consequences and entertainment effects.