Marketing little cigars and cigarillos: advertising, price, and associations with neighborhood demographics

Abstract

Objectives: We have documented little cigar and cigarillo (LCC) availability, advertising, and price in the point-of-sale environment and examined associations with neighborhood demographics.

Methods: We used a multimodal real-time surveillance system to survey LCCs in 750 licensed tobacco retail outlets that sold tobacco products in Washington, DC. Using multivariate models, we examined the odds of LCC availability, the number of storefront exterior advertisements, and the price per cigarillo for Black & Mild packs in relation to neighborhood demographics.

Results: The odds of LCC availability and price per cigarillo decreased significantly in nearly a dose-response manner with each quartile increase in proportion of African Americans. Prices were also lower in some young adult neighborhoods. Having a higher proportion of African American and young adult residents was associated with more exterior LCC advertising.

Conclusions: Higher availability of LCCs in African American communities and lower prices and greater outdoor advertising in minority and young adult neighborhoods may establish environmental triggers to smoke among groups susceptible to initiation, addiction, and long-term negative health consequences.

FIGURE 1—

Inverse relationship between proportion of (a) African Americans in the block group and (b) lower predicted price per cigarillo: Washington, DC, 2011–2012. Note. LCC = little cigar and cigarillo. Figure 1a shows the quartile distribution of the African American population for Washington, DC, with darker colors representing the higher quartiles. Figure 1b shows the prediction map of price per cigarillo across block groups of Washington, DC, using kriging methodology, with the darker color representing lower prices.