A content analysis of website marketing for cooling flavored e-liquids in a sample of brick-and-mortar vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles area.

INTRODUCTION:Menthol is a characterizing flavor in combustible cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). E-liquids are recognized as an important reason for ENDS use. Yet, compared to menthol cigarettes, menthol flavored e-liquids and other cooling flavors, including mint and 'ice' for ENDS, are an understudied area of investigation. The present study examined cooling flavored e-liquid website marketing among brick-and-mortar vape shops in Greater Los Angeles Area. METHODS:A total of 104 brick-and-mortar vape shops were identified, and 38 had active websites. Over a 30-day period (28 September - 28 October 2020), we collected marketing for all flavored refillable e-liquids (photos/images) from each website. Data were collected for 1330 products. Only refillable e-liquid bottles were selected for this study, excluding prefilled pod vapes and disposable vapes. Each e-liquid per website was coded (e.g. mentholmentholmenthol, minticeothermenthol, mint,iceRESULTS:A total of 1330 e-liquid flavors were identified from 38 active websites. Among them, 219 were coded as menthol/mint/iceice/iced/icymentholmintothericeotherCONCLUSIONS:Brick-and-mortar vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles Area market a variety of cooling flavor e-liquids on their websites. Such marketing focused largely on ice