Tobacco companies target young people through a layered strategy that spans product design, retail placement, digital marketing, and pricing. Despite decades of regulation, including the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement that explicitly banned advertising directed at minors, the industry has consistently found new channels and methods to reach underage consumers. In 2024, 10.1% of high school students and 5.4% of middle school students reported using a tobacco product in the previous 30 days, representing roughly 2.2 million young people nationwide.
Flavors That Mask the Harshness
The most direct way the industry appeals to first-time users is by making tobacco and nicotine products taste good. Tobacco in its natural form is bitter and harsh, which is exactly why manufacturers add sugars, salts, and artificial flavorings like fruit, candy, and peppermint. These additives increase palatability and reduce the throat burn that would otherwise discourage a young person from trying a second time. Adolescents consistently rate fruit and candy flavors as highly appealing, and flavored products are strongly linked to both initiation and the progression to regular use.
This applies across product categories. Flavored e-cigarettes, which remain the most popular tobacco product among both middle and high school students, come in hundreds of varieties. Nicotine pouches, the fastest-growing category, lean heavily on flavor promotion in their advertising. Even flavored little cigars and cigarillos are marketed with sweet, fruit-forward profiles designed to blur the line between a tobacco product and a treat.
Products Designed to Hide in Plain Sight
A wave of nicotine devices are now engineered to be invisible in school settings. Vapes shaped like pens, smartwatches, and phone cases are sold openly online. Some of the most elaborate designs include vape hoodies, sweatshirts with tubed drawstrings that connect to a vape pen hidden in a chest pocket. A user inhales through a mouthpiece at the end of the drawstring, and the vapor stays concealed inside the tube. Backpacks with similar hidden tubing in the shoulder strap serve the same purpose.
These aren’t fringe products. They’re marketed to people who need to vape without being seen, a use case that overwhelmingly describes students in classrooms and hallways. Meanwhile, oral nicotine pouches are promoted with messaging that emphasizes convenience and discretion. The leading brand, Zyn, specifically highlights the ability to use the product without anyone noticing, a selling point that resonates far more with a teenager hiding from a teacher than an adult at home.
Strategic Placement in Stores
Retail environments are carefully engineered to put tobacco products in front of young eyes. A study spanning 42 countries found that cigarette advertisements were placed at roughly one meter off the ground (about 3.3 feet) in every single country examined. That’s eye level for a child, not an adult. Tobacco companies have long known that products placed at eye level generate more purchases than those placed elsewhere, and they apply this principle deliberately.
Placement next to candy, snacks, and sugary drinks was observed in 90% of the countries studied. This positioning means a child can’t browse the candy aisle without being exposed to tobacco advertising. The proximity also creates an implicit association between tobacco products and the everyday treats kids are already buying. In the United States, stores near schools with more Black students are more likely to promote menthol cigarettes through advertising and discounts, and menthol-specific marketing is more likely to appear near candy displays in neighborhoods with more Black children.
Price Tricks That Lower the Barrier
Young people are among the most price-sensitive consumers, and the industry exploits this. Coupons, two-for-one deals, and multi-pack discounts at the point of sale are designed to make the first purchase feel low-risk. Research shows these promotions work: in a controlled experiment, young adults aged 18 to 20 who were exposed to a store environment without visible price discounts were roughly half as likely to express willingness to smoke cigarettes compared to those who saw the usual promotional signage.
Price promotions are also concentrated in specific communities. Tobacco companies disproportionately use discount strategies in stores whose customers are mostly African American, and these same promotions are most frequently used by minority groups, women, and young people.
Digital Marketing and Social Media
Although Meta officially banned branded content promoting tobacco products, vaporizers, and e-cigarettes on Instagram and Facebook in 2019, the policy has significant gaps. It does not explicitly prohibit promotion of nicotine products that don’t contain tobacco, or venues and events where tobacco products are featured. As a result, roughly 72% of U.S. tobacco-related branded posts on Instagram promoted venues or events (hookah lounges, cigar bars) rather than products directly. Influencers post from sponsored locations, describe having a great time, and tag the venue, all without technically advertising a tobacco product.
Retailers and users also adapt their language to dodge algorithmic enforcement. By rephrasing product names and avoiding flagged terms, they keep promotional content live on platforms that nominally prohibit it. Nicotine pouch brands have been particularly active in this space, with advertising that emphasizes flavor variety and lifestyle integration rather than the product’s actual contents.
Lifestyle Branding and Sponsorships
E-cigarette companies sponsor NASCAR rallies, football games, and other sporting events, reviving a sponsorship playbook that traditional cigarette makers were forced to abandon. These sponsorships associate nicotine products with excitement, athleticism, and cultural relevance. In communities with large African American populations, tobacco companies have gone further, sponsoring pop-up concerts featuring hip-hop artists inside convenience stores and supporting cultural events designed to build brand loyalty among Black young adults.
The goal of lifestyle branding is to make nicotine use feel like part of an identity rather than a health decision. When a product is linked to music, sports, or social belonging, the calculation a young person makes shifts from “should I use this” to “this is what people like me do.”
Targeting Specific Communities
The industry’s tactics are not applied evenly. Neighborhoods with more African American residents tend to have a higher density of tobacco retailers. Those stores carry more advertising, dedicate more shelf space to menthol products, and stock more flavored little cigars and cigarillos. Stores in lower-income areas follow a similar pattern, with more aggressive promotion and wider availability of the flavored products that are most appealing to young, first-time users.
Menthol has been central to this strategy for decades. The cooling sensation of menthol reduces irritation, making it easier to inhale deeply and absorb more nicotine. By concentrating menthol marketing in Black communities and near schools with large Black student populations, the industry has driven stark disparities in tobacco use patterns. Today, menthol cigarettes account for a far higher share of smoking among Black Americans than among any other demographic group.
Why Regulations Haven’t Closed the Gap
The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement was supposed to end youth-targeted marketing. But within two years, all three major manufacturers at the time (Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Brown and Williamson) had failed to comply, selectively increasing their advertising in publications with high youth readership. The agreement lacked enforcement mechanisms strong enough to prevent companies from shifting tactics rather than abandoning them.
Today, the landscape is even harder to police. New product categories like nicotine pouches exist in regulatory gray areas. Social media platforms write policies that sound comprehensive but leave loopholes for venue promotions and non-tobacco nicotine products. Disguised vaping devices are sold through online retailers that face minimal oversight. Each time a regulation closes one channel, the industry opens another, and young people remain the target.