A content analysis of website marketing for cooling flavored e-liquids in a sample of brick-and-mortar vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles area

• Published in: Tobacco Prevention & Cessation
• Main Authors: Brown, Nichelle, Shin, Heesung, Whooley, Simone, Tefilin, Nathan, Les, Olena, Smiley, Sabrina L.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: European Publishing on behalf of the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP) 2022
• Subjects: Short Report; Arctic
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9310102/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35949949; https://doi.org/10.18332/tpc/150771

INTRODUCTION: Menthol is a characterizing flavor in combustible cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). E-liquids are recognized as an important reason for ENDS use. Yet, compared to menthol cigarettes, menthol flavored e-liquids and other cooling flavors, including mint and ‘ice’ for ENDS, are an understudied area of investigation. The present study examined cooling flavored e-liquid website marketing among brick-and-mortar vape shops in Greater Los Angeles Area. METHODS: A total of 104 brick-and-mortar vape shops were identified, and 38 had active websites. Over a 30-day period (28 September – 28 October 2020), we collected marketing for all flavored refillable e-liquids (photos/images) from each website. Data were collected for 1330 products. Only refillable e-liquid bottles were selected for this study, excluding prefilled pod vapes and disposable vapes. Each e-liquid per website was coded (e.g. menthol or not) and grouped into categories (e.g. type of menthol). The three flavor descriptor categories that the e-liquids were grouped into were menthol, mint, or ice. An ‘other’ category was also created for identified e-liquids with flavor descriptors that did not mention menthol, mint, or ice. RESULTS: A total of 1330 e-liquid flavors were identified from 38 active websites. Among them, 219 were coded as menthol/mint/ice flavor e-liquids. Frequencies included ice/iced/icy (n=123; 56%), menthol (n=32; 15%), mint (n=23; 11%), and other (n=41; 19%). Of the 123 ice-flavor e-liquids, 70.3% (n=83) were in combination with fruit (e.g. ‘Apple Ice’, ‘Grape Iced’, ‘Icy Mango’). Of the 32 menthol-flavored e-liquids, 63.3% (n=19) were in combination with fruit (e.g. ‘Dragon Fruit Menthol’, ‘Blue Raspberry Menthol’, ‘Fresh Peach Menthol’). Flavors in the other category were ice-related flavor descriptors (e.g. ‘Arctic Air’, ‘Brain Freeze’, ‘Frozen Hulk Tears’). CONCLUSIONS: Brick-and-mortar vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles Area market a variety of cooling flavor e-liquids on their websites. Such ...