How Do Vape Advertising Campaigns Affect Consumers' Vaping Tendency? A Meta-Analytic Investigation.

This article presents a meta-analysis of 43 papers (140 studies, 77,452 observations) examining the effects of vape advertising campaigns on consumers' vaping tendency. The analysis finds that vape campaigns generally increase consumers' vaping tendency, with stronger effects observed when perceived risk is less salient—specifically in social media advertising versus traditional media, picture-dominant versus text-dominant ads, among adolescents versus adults, and nonsmokers versus smokers. Contrary to claims by vaping product manufacturers, the study also reveals that vape advertising campaigns reduce smokers' intention to quit smoking. The authors discuss theoretical implications centered on perceived risk and offer policy recommendations, including stricter regulations on social media advertising, enhanced health risk labeling, and targeted prevention programs for vulnerable groups such as adolescents and nonsmokers.