Content appealing to youth and spend characteristics of electronic cigarette video advertisements.

Background: The US electronic cigarette (ECIG) market and use behavior continues to rise, warranting investigation of ECIG advertisement (ad) content within media channels frequented by youth including internet and television (TV). In order to inform potential policy regulations, this content analysis sought to assess the prevalence of youth-appealing content and spend characteristics among ECIG video ads.

Methods: Between 2015 and 2016, 46 ECIG video ads were identified using an ad-tracking firm and were coded using the Content Appealing to Youth (CAY) index.