"I'll be your cigarette--light me up and get on with it": examining smoking imagery on YouTube.
BACKGROUND
Smoking imagery on the online video sharing site YouTube is prolific and easily accessed. However, no studies have examined how this content changes across time. We studied the primary message and genre of YouTube videos about smoking across two time periods.


METHODS
In May and July 2009, we used "cigarettes" and "smoking cigarettes" to retrieve the top 20 videos on YouTube by relevance and view count. Eliminating duplicates, 124 videos were coded for time period, overall message, genre, and brand mentions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.


RESULTS
Videos portraying smoking positively far outnumbered smoking-negative videos in both samples, increasing as a percentage of total views across the time period. Fifty-eight percent of videos in the second sample were new. Among smoking-positive videos, music and magic tricks were most numerous, increasing from 66% to nearly 80% in July, with music accounting for most of the increase. Marlboro was the most frequently mentioned brand.


CONCLUSIONS
Videos portraying smoking positively predominate on YouTube, and this pattern persists across time. Tobacco control advocates could use YouTube more effectively to counterbalance prosmoking messages.
Forsyth
Susan R
SR
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA.
Malone
Ruth E
RE
D000329:Advertising / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012907:Smoking; D014743:Videotape Recording / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*