Manufacturers of oral nicotine products—such as pouches, tablets, or lozenges—are using splashy ad campaigns to appeal to retailers, particularly focusing on profitability, convenience of use, and availability of non-tobacco flavors, according to a study published in November 2024 by a multi-institution team that included two Yale researchers.
Nicotine pouches are relatively new products in the U.S. tobacco market but have been gaining rapid popularity.
The paper, published in Tobacco Control, tracks the business-to-business advertisements used by oral nicotine product manufacturers between January 2016 and August 2022. The researchers say the advertisements can provide insight into new product flavors and styles and future marketing strategies that may target consumers, making them important trends to monitor.
Oral nicotine products like pouches are gaining in popularity among consumers because of how discreetly they can be used. People tuck them between their lip or cheek and gums, making them difficult to detect.
The pouches produce no smoke or vapor. Most of them are marketed as ‘tobacco-free’ but do contain nicotine, a chemical found in tobacco. Nicotine is an addictive chemical that can lead to dependence.
In their marketing to retailers, manufacturers promoted ease of use in places where people can’t smoke or vape, according to the collaborative paper, led by Akshika Sharma, PhD, postdoctoral associate in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, and co-authored by Krysten W. Bold, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry.
"We observed display of a wide range of flavors and high nicotine strengths in the ads targeted to businesses. From our knowledge of other nicotine products, these ad components might be attractive to people who use these products," said Sharma, the paper's first author.
The researchers found that most ads—approximately 72% of the 50 that were reviewed—contain a slogan and some highlighted convenience of use. One example was the phrase, “Chew on this anywhere … anytime,” an angle that bypasses current use restrictions on other tobacco and nicotine products.
Profit margins for retailers were also promoted; one ad included the phrase, “Small pouches, big margins.” Most ads— approximately 82%—featured at least one cooling flavor and 48% displayed at least one fruit flavor. Wintergreen flavor appeared most frequently at 48%.
Although intended for retailers, the ads could also resonate with consumers and may be important to monitor by tobacco regulators, the researchers said.
The research in this press release was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products to the Center for Coordination of Analytics, Science, Enhancement and Logistics (CASEL) in Tobacco Regulatory Science (grant number U54-DA046060). Additional funding includes NIDA grants U54DA036151 and R01DA054993. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or the Food and Drug Administration.