Consequences of applying soft-sell themes in e-cigarette advertisements

This research uses a multi-method approach to validate the prominence of soft-sell themes to advertise e-cigarettes and to test how this advertising theme influences consumers' attitudes and behaviors. First, the study presents a content analysis identifying the prevalence of soft-sell themes used as marketing stimuli to advertise e-cigarettes. Second, a quasi-experiment tests the effects of a soft-sell theme ad on consumers' attitudes toward vaping, their intention to try e-cigarettes, their attitude toward smoking, and maladaptive intentions. This latter effect is relevant to e-cigarette marketing literature, as it suggests how consumers lose temporal distance of the harmful effects of vaping. Theoretical and practical contributions of these findings are discussed.