Ice flavor-related discussions on Twitter: a content analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND After the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restricted characterizing flavors in tobacco products, ‘ice’ hybrid-flavored e-cigarettes, which combine a cooling flavor with fruit or other flavors (e.g., banana ice), have recently emerged on the market. Like menthol, ‘ice’ flavors produce a cooling sensory experience. However, they may not fit into existing flavor profile categories such as characterizing flavors or menthol, limiting regulatory action. Monitoring the public’s conversations about ‘ice’-flavored e-cigarettes on social media may help inform the tobacco control community about these products and contribute to the FDA policy targets in the future. OBJECTIVE This study documented the themes pertaining to vaping and ‘ice’ flavor-related conversations on Twitter. METHODS Posts containing vaping-related (e.g., “vape”, “ecig”, “e-juice”, “e-cigarette”) and ‘ice’-related (i.e., “Cool,” “Frost,” “Arctic”) terms were collected from Twitter’s Streaming Application Programming Interface between January 1, 2021, to July 21, 2021. After removing retweets, we selected a random sample of (n=2001) posts for the content analysis. Themes were developed through an inductive approach. Theme co-occurrence was also examined. RESULTS Posts were often marked as (or consisted of) marketing material (51.9%), contained positive personal testimonials (47.0%), and mentioned disposable pod (19.8%) and CBD products (7.0%). The most common co-occurring themes in a single tweet were related to marketing and disposable pod devices (12.0%). CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that ‘ice’-flavored e-cigarette products are actively marketed on social media while the messages about them are overwhelmingly positive. Public health education campaigns may help to reduce positive social norms about ‘ice’-flavored products, while banning tobacco marketing posts on social media may limit their promotion to the public.