Waterpipe Promotion and Use on Instagram: #Hookah

Abstract

Introduction: Waterpipe (hookah) use is becoming more prevalent in the United States and abroad with potential implications for public health. As waterpipe use rapidly grows in popularity, novel data streams are needed that can help capture and document the social and environmental context in which individuals use, and are marketed, this emerging tobacco product. This study characterized waterpipe-related posts on Instagram in order to inform regulatory and policy activities in the United States.

Methods: Data were collected from Instagram, an image-based social media site. Inclusion criteria for this study comprised an Instagram post with the hashtag "#hookah" that was accompanied by geo-location metadata demonstrating that the post was inside the contiguous United States. Rules were established for coding themes of images (n = 1705).

Results: Seven percent of images depicted a single person using a waterpipe and/or blowing smoke, 25% depicted two or more persons lounging and/or using a waterpipe, 6% depicted waterpipes, coals or flavored tobacco without people, 18% of images were promotional material for hookah lounges and restaurant/bars/nightclubs referencing hookah in the text or depicting a waterpipe, 25% were non-waterpipe-related promotional material, 1% were sexually explicit material, and 18% other. 31% of all images depicted or referenced alcohol. 30% of posts provided geo-location from a hookah lounge, 56% from a restaurant/bar/nightclub, and 14% from other types of locations.

Conclusions: The cross promotion of waterpipe and alcohol use by hookah lounges, and restaurants/bars/nightclubs suggests that poly-substance use is regularly depicted, and promoted, in nightlife entertainment as well as normalized on Instagram in the United States.

Implications: In the US Instagram posts with the hashtag #hookah regularly depicted waterpipe use in conjunction with alcohol use. Instagram's focus on images facilitates picture-based advertising where hookah lounges promote drink specials at the same time nightclubs promote waterpipe specials. Instagram users often document the variety of shapes, sizes, and styles, of waterpipes, suggesting users take pride in their purchases and like to show their customized, and often times elaborate, waterpipes to their followers. Instagram has been underutilized in understanding tobacco related-behaviors and identifying tobacco-related promotional material.

Figure 1.

Demonstrates images representative of themes. (A) Individual Waterpipe Use: one person using a waterpipe and/or blowing smoke; (B) Social Gathering: two or more persons socializing together and/or using a waterpipe; (C) Waterpipe and Components: photo of waterpipe, coals, or flavored tobacco without people; (D) Promotional Material: flyer for a lounge/bar/nightclub referencing hookah in the text or depicting a waterpipe. Note for ethical and copyright reasons the exact posts from Instagram were not used. While these four images accurately represent their respective themes, (D) Promotional Material often depicted images of hookahs and alcohol (eg, bottle of vodka) or price promotions (happy hour drink specials) that are not depicted in the figure.