TY - JOUR T1 - Targeted tobacco marketing in 2020: the case of #BlackLivesMatter JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control DO - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056838 SP - tobaccocontrol-2021-056838 AU - Kathryn Heley AU - Lucy Popova AU - Meghan Bridgid Moran AU - Ziyad Ben Taleb AU - Joy L Hart AU - Olivia A Wackowski AU - Erika Westling AU - Sabrina L Smiley AU - Cassandra A Stanton Y1 - 2021/12/13 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2021/12/13/tobaccocontrol-2021-056838.abstract N2 - 2020 saw the continued impact of systemic racism and racial inequity in the United States (US). Inequities of COVID-19 highlighted the convergence of social risk factors, racism and health,1 while the police killing of George Floyd and others sparked international protests for racial justice.2 The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement brought racial equity central to media and public dialogue in the US and worldwide.3We provide examples of how tobacco companies and retailers, ever ready to capitalise, used BLM and racial equity in their marketing and messaging. Examples were identified by reviewing social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for leading brands of tobacco products including cigars, e-cigarettes, cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, heated tobacco products and hookah products; select manufacturer and retailer websites; and advertisements archived on Trinkets & Trash (trinketsandtrash.org), a tobacco advertising surveillance website. Sources were searched in December 2020 and included materials circulated between January and December 2020.We identified several examples of cigar/cigarillo and hookah manufacturers integrating BLM and racial equity themes in their advertising and merchandise. Social media posts included expressions of support, solidarity, ‘listening’, remembrance and togetherness, exemplified by social media black squares, hashtags such as ‘#GeorgeFloyd’, and captions (eg, ‘We’re all in this together! Black Lives Matter!’; see figures 1–4 for additional examples).4–7 Several hookah retailers used social media and/or retail websites to promote BLM-branded products and accessories (eg, mouthpiece decorated with jewelery spelling BLM) (figure 5).8Figure 1 An Instagram carousel posted by Swisher in June 2020 featuring: (1) an empty black square posted on 2 June 2020 as part of ‘Blackout Tuesday’, a social media action where supporters posted similar posts in solidarity across various platforms; (2) a statement posted on 4 June 2020 … ER -