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Research presented at NCI seminar: IQOS marketing and FDA 'reduced exposure' language can mislead consumers, study finds
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Summary
Dr. Carla Berg described surveillance in Israel and the U.S. showing IQOS marketing used technology imagery and targeted youth and minorities; qualitative and experimental work found consumers commonly interpreted FDA 'reduced exposure' wording as 'reduced harm' and foreign ads exploited that perception.
At the same National Cancer Institute seminar, Dr. Carla Berg reviewed a market‑surveillance and consumer‑research project in Israel and the United States that tracked IQOS (a heated tobacco product) marketing and public reaction.
Berg said Israel was an early market for IQOS and that initial advertising emphasized technology themes and imagery. After regulatory changes in Israel—culminating in advertising restrictions and large warnings—marketing shifted but continued to show patterns that, in some cases, placed products near youth‑oriented merchandise and schools.
Her team combined point‑of‑sale audits, market surveillance and consumer interviews. Berg said their qualitative work showed many people conflated the FDA's "reduced exposure" phrasing with "reduced harm." "...almost every person that we talked to in our qualitative interviews immediately translated that to reduced harm," she said, adding that some foreign ads leaned on U.S. FDA language to imply health benefits contrary to the specific limits of the authorization.
Experiments and interviews showed that pairing product advertising with authoritative health messages could produce unintended effects on consumer perceptions. Berg warned that the way modified‑risk or reduced‑exposure messages are presented can be misunderstood by consumers and exploited in other countries' marketing.
Berg noted the findings matter to U.S. regulators because IQOS has reentered the U.S. market after earlier litigation, and because manufacturers and advertisers can use international messaging online. She called for careful monitoring of how regulatory language is used in global marketing.
