TrendBlendz: how Splitarillos use marijuana flavours to promote cigarillo use.

Trendsettah, Inc. is a cigar and cigarillo-producing company whose brands include cigarillos, Hood Wraps cigars, Blow vaporisers, Vsmoke e-liquids, as well as other brands.1 Trendsettah connects with its consumers through live entertainment, social media and experiential promotion, and is highly active on such social media sites as Twitter and Instagram.1 In addition it uses ‘most popular personalities in entertainment, sports, fashion and style,’ such as rappers Jadakiss, Boosie, and Chris Brown as spokespeople for its tobacco products.1 As part of the ‘experiential promotion’ the company employs a ‘fleet’ of promotional vans that distribute giveaways and advertise tobacco products in urban areas (figure 1).Figure 1 Splitarillos USA Instagram photos. Top row: Use of promotional vehicals to distribute giveaways and market in urban neighborhoods (left); Promotion of Loud, PurpleK, 18K flavour (right). Source: https://instagram.com/splitarillos_usa/ Bottom row: Promotion of Cali Green and Pineapple Express at the 2014 High Times Cannabis Cup (left) and the 2014 Chalice California (right). Source: …