NCT07420842

Influencer Marketing and Adolescent E-cigarette Use

The Effect of Social Media Influencer Marketing on E-cigarette Perceptions and Use by Adolescents.

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 700 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Southern California · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 14 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Adolescents (N = 700) participated in the online survey-based randomized experiment focused on understanding youth perceptions of e-cigarette influencer marketing on social media. Specifically, the study assessed how age appearance of social media influencers, fitness-related contextual framing of e-cigarette content, and perceived influencer credibility jointly shape adolescent harm perceptions, appeal, and susceptibility to e-cigarette use. Participants were randomly shown 6 videos, featuring younger- or older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes in the following experimental conditions: 1) younger-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-oriented activities (condition 1); 2) older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-oriented activities (condition 2); 3) younger-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes without any fitness-oriented content; and 4) older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes without any fitness-oriented content (control). After watching each video, participants rated perceptions of influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge) on the scale of 0 (e.g., dishonest) to 100 (honest). Among all participants, harm perceptions and appeal of e-cigarettes was also assessed. Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes was assessed among never users of e-cigarettes.

Detailed description

Adolescents (14-17 years of age) living in California were recruited by Qualtrics marketing research panel to participate in a survey on tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Qualtrics, a research panel agency, has been used in prior research to survey adolescents about their tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Participants were provided with a survey URL link. After completing informed consent, participants completed the survey online. The study was approved by the University of Southern California Institutional Review Board (UP-CG-24-00013). Respondents were randomly assigned to watch six 10-second long Instagram and/or TikTok videos in four experimental conditions: 1) younger-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-oriented activities (condition 1); 2) older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-oriented activities (condition 2); 3) younger-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes without any fitness-oriented content; and 4) older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes without any fitness-oriented content (control).

Conditions

• Vaping

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Youth Perceptions of Influencer Age and Fitness Contexts in E-Cigarette Marketing	Participants watched online survey-imbedded promotional videos featuring influencers. Influencer age appearance was manipulated using AI-based age filter.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-07-16
• Primary completion: 2025-08-01
• Completion: 2025-08-01
• First posted: 2026-02-19
• Last updated: 2026-02-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States