While the proliferation of social media brought great opportunities for marketers and advertisers, these platforms have become focal for public health risks, especially with younger populations. Underage e-cigarette use has become a public health epidemic in the United States, especially among adolescents. Per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 2018b), the e-cigarette industry is aggressively and successfully promoting e-cigarettes among underage populations through product design, variety of flavors, social media marketing, and advertising campaigns (Bronstad, 2020, February 19; Betz, 2020, February 25). With limited research examining the different strategies implemented to attract and target adolescents and young adults, the current study investigated how underage youth and young adults can access and get targeted by e-cigarette brands and retailers on the popular social media platform, Instagram. To do so, the study used fictitious Instagram user profiles of varying ages (13 vs. 19 vs. 25 years old) and two forms of user engagement (post vs. reach) over a three-week intervention period. The goal of the study is to document whether or not users below the legal purchase age (i.e., 13) are able to access e-cigarette content on Instagram, and more importantly, what types of messages and sponsored content will they receive and be targeted with over the intervention period. Findings showed e-cigarette retailers and brands are actively targeting adolescents and emerging adults through Instagram. By providing promotional and marketing content on Instagram through open accessibility, direct private communication messages, and engagement with users' content regardless of promotional and age legal restrictions.Keywords: E-cigarette, youth, underage, Instagram, access, engagement, post, reach.
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