Educational Campaigns Could Shift Views on Menthol Cigarettes and Flavored Cigar Bans

Four in 5 Black adults mistakenly believed that proposed bans on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars would have targeted smokers, rather than the makers and sellers of these products.

That misconception, according to a new study, was associated with reduced support for banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, which have long been marketed disproportionately in Black communities. Consistent with this targeted marketing, most Black adults who use cigarettes smoke menthol cigarettes (81%).

Public health education campaigns can be effective in correcting misperceptions and garnering support for public health policies. Researchers with the Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies surveyed 823 Black adults and identified the seven beliefs associated with opposing banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars - beliefs they hope to change with the next step in this line of research, a public education campaign.

"We've had extensive campaigns on the harms of cigarettes, on quitting, on e-cigarettes," said lead study author Ollie Ganz, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health. "Messaging about menthol and flavored combusted tobacco products has been sparse, especially when it comes to proposed public health policies designed to reduce the harms of these products."

To identify which beliefs are worth targeting in future education campaigns, the researchers looked for issues where incorrect beliefs were widely held and strongly associated with opposition to the bans, as well as correct beliefs associated with support for the bans.

The misunderstanding about authorities punishing smokers rather than just tobacco makers and sellers met these criteria. In addition to being a commonly held belief, it was associated with low support for bans. The small proportion of participants (20%) who agreed that the proposed policies focused on tobacco companies and retailers were seven to eight times more likely to strongly favor the bans.

The study also found other beliefs could prove viable targets for education. Fewer than half of respondents realized that a menthol ban could have significant positive health effects or knew how menthol cigarettes or flavored cigars affected smoking progression or quitting.

Overall, 29% of survey participants strongly favored a ban, though few rejected tobacco company-promoted claims that the bans would do more harm than good in Black communities.

In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, but the proposal was delayed in 2024 and abandoned in 2025 following opposition that the study's authors said included tobacco company-funded disinformation campaigns.

Although federal bans are no longer moving forward, California and Massachusetts prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. Other states and localities, including New Jersey, are weighing similar measures. Findings from this study may help with efforts to educate communities on the public health impact of these proposals.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01MD018728. All project costs were financed with Federal money ($2,571,894). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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