BACKGROUND: Regulatory authorities face a major challenge regarding social media platforms, regarding the advertising of tobacco and nicotine products, especially on Instagram and Facebook. Facebook is preferably accessed by older users and Instagram is preferably accessed by younger users. In Brazil, the advertising and sale of tobacco and nicotine products on the internet is prohibited. Thus, the objective of this study is to evaluate the advertisements of these products on Instagram and Facebook.
METHODS: Data searches were conducted to verify the compliance, as part of ANVISA's monitoring routines, from July 1 to September 30, 2024, on Facebook and Instagram. The searches were done through social media search tools using keywords based on current regulations.
RESULTS: 6091 non-complying URLs were found. 6080 were found on INSTAGRAM and 11 on FACEBOOK. 2693 were related to conventional tobacco products and 3001 were related to electronic devices to smoke (that includes electronic cigarettes, htp and other devices). The type of noncompliance found were: 4,368 related to sales on the internet, 104 to product use, 13 to social acceptance, 1 to film, 6 to cartoons, 11 to artists, and 5 to sports. All pages were removed by ANVISA’s determination. The use of the Internet to sell products is the most common infraction. However, advertisements using cartoon characters are worrying as they can reach children more easily, and the association with artists can reach a teenage audience.
CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that tobacco companies have been using the internet to circumvents the regulation. Due to the type of social network used and the nature of the advertisements, companies seem focus their efforts to target young and young-adult audience, both for conventional tobacco products and for products such as electronic cigarettes. This data also provides insights to defines new strategies for monitoring the networks.