The impact of social media campaigning on
people’s health-related life choices was investigated
in a 2016 Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)
study. It found that 59 percent of participants
followed social influencers on social media
platforms while 32 percent of participants said that
influencers motivated them to make healthier
food choices.
The potential for influencers to raise awareness
in public health campaigns was demonstrated
the following year by a team at Queen’s University
Belfast. The aim of the study was to see whether
social media could be an effective intervention
tool in skin cancer prevention.
Researchers began by tweeting from a skin
cancer charity’s twitter account and influencers
with a notable following were then asked to
retweet campaign content.
Overall, the campaign reached more than
23 percent of Northern Ireland’s population.
An online survey suggested that the campaign
may have raised awareness of skin cancer and
improved attitudes among the target population.
This Health Canada campaign is a step towards
achieving the TVPA’s goal of preventing young
people and non-smokers from using e-cigarettes.
But while teenagers and non-smokers should
be discouraged from trying e-cigarettes, the
campaign feels like more of a PR exercise that
uses Big Tobacco-style tactics to change the
public’s perception of vaping.
This message certainly appeals to Marion
Wright, executive director of Rideauwood Addiction
and Family Services. “[Vaping] will lose its coolness,
especially if there are more restrictions put on it
and something else will probably pop up.”
According to the Canadian Student Tobacco,
Alcohol and Drugs Survey 2016-17, 23 percent
of students in grades 7-12 had at some point
tried an e-cigarette. However, only 10 percent
had used an e-cigarette within the past 30
days. The survey did not distinguish between
long-term users and those who only tried vaping
on one or a handful of occasions, so it’s likely
that far fewer than 10 percent of students could
be classed as regular vapers.
Data specific to the young adults in Canada
is difficult to obtain as it tends to overlap with
school-age user statistics. However, in the UK,
research by Action for Smoking and Health
(ASH) found that adults who had never smoked
only accounted for around 10 percent of the
vaping population.
While Health Canada has acknowledged
that vaping is less harmful than smoking and
can help smokers quit, this campaign risks
undermining the potential benefits of formally
regulating and encouraging adult smokers to
vape instead.
Health Canada may be targeting teenagers
and young non-smokers, but they will have to
strike a difficult balance. Social media is not the
preserve of the young.
Influencers will need to demonstrate nuance if
they hope to deter their young followers from
vaping without putting off smokers from making
the switch. And nuance is increasingly hard to
come by in this digital age.
To those sceptical of Health Canada’s motivations,
this campaign will provide further evidence that
the TVPA was more of an anti-vaping measure
than a formal acknowledgement of the benefits
of vaping for smoking-cessation. Teenagers
and never-smokers are far less likely to vape
than smokers, yet they remain the focus of the
government’s campaigns. Perhaps they should
consider looking to the UK to see what impact
a vape-positive message can have on the lives
of smokers.
VMC | 53