Project 3: Influence of Cigarillo Packaging and Labeling on Young Adults

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PROJECT SUMMARY The extension of the FDA's regulatory authority to cigars through the 2016 Deeming Rule will now allow the FDA to regulate the labeling and marketing of cigars to protect public health. Cigar specific data is critically needed to inform the FDA's cigar-related marketing and labeling policies. As such, the goal of our project is to advance research on cigar packaging and labeling that may both facilitate and dissuade cigar use among young adults, a priority age group for tobacco regulatory science with the highest rates of cigar and cigarillo use, who also serve as important role models for youth. Using a series of complementary mixed methods studies (i.e., online exposure experiments, observational secondary data analyses, smoking lab study), we will study the effects of exposure to cigar packaging with varying warning labels (text and pictorial) and descriptors (flavors and potentially modified-risk claims) on cigar perceptions, use intentions, and use. Specifically, we aim to 1) test the effect of different cigarillo packaging features (descriptors, colors, presence of current warning labels) on perceptions and use intentions among 2400 young adult past year cigarillo smokers using a between subjects online experiment, 2) compare the effect of different text and pictorial warnings on cigarillo perceptions and use intentions among 1,800 young adults using an online experiment, and 3) evaluate exposure to cigar warnings in the population (and associations with cigar harm perceptions and use) over time via longitudinal analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) survey data. Lastly, in an exploratory smoking experiment, 100 young adult past 30 day cigarillo smokers will smoke non-flavored cigarillos placed in packaging with flavor descriptors, to independently examine the potential impact of packaging and descriptors on cigar ratings. Overall, this research will fit under the UPENN/Rutgers TCORS Integrative Theme of marketing, advertising and packaging of combusted tobacco products, and will directly address the FDA Center for Tobacco Products Scientific Domains of Marketing Influences, Communications and Behavior. The findings from this study may provide the FDA with evaluative information about policies implemented as a result of the Deeming Rule (e.g., new requirements expanding cigar text warnings) and also inform future FDA rulemaking on cigar flavoring, packaging descriptors, plain packaging, and pictorial warnings.