TY - JOUR T1 - Worldwide news and comment JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 241 LP - 244 DO - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056686 VL - 30 IS - 3 AU - Marita Hefler AU - John Baker Y1 - 2021/05/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/30/3/241.abstract N2 - Social media are an unregulated frontier regarding depictions of tobacco product use, in stark contrast to the increasing restrictions on such portrayals in mainstream media. In particular, it is much easier for content which promotes tobacco products to reach young audiences, since rules prohibiting tobacco product advertising through such media can be circumvented or simply ignored. Given the ubiquity and influence of social media use among young people, the opportunity to lure young “replacement smokers” offers a marketing paradise where anonymous or fabricated accounts and missing or inadequate control by the platforms make tracing the source of content extremely challenging.List of most viewed videos at https://www.smokingsweeties.com.Enter “smoking” as a keyword on Instagram and you will be referred to dozens of accounts with names referring to smoking girls and women, which feature images of young women smoking. Regardless of who is behind the accounts – and it is usually unclear – they are a great promotional tool for the tobacco industry. Browsing such sites leads to new accounts appearing on one’s timeline, with account names that include references to smoking and fetishes. These feature hundreds of pictures and videos of busty women with low necklines in seductive poses, sometimes only wearing lingerie or even topless - and always with a cigarette in their hand or mouth. In videos shown in many of the posts, the girls inhale deeply and then exhale the cigarette smoke towards the camera with a sultry look.An example of smoking imagery on Instagram. Source: https://www.instagram.com/human_marlboro_for_kate/.In this universe of scantily clad and provocatively smoking models, frequent references in accompanying texts to certain cigarette brands raise questions about how and by whom they might be financed. One YouTube channel which has in its description “Just posting smoking fetish related content”, is filled with … ER -