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Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been increasingly available and marketed in the U.S. since 2007. As patterns of product adoption are frequently driven and reinforced by marketing, it is important to understand the marketing claims encountered by consumers.

To describe the main advertising claims made on branded e-cigarette retail websites.

Websites were retrieved from two major search engines in 2011 using iterative searches with the following terms: electronic cigarette, e-cigarette, e-cig, and personal vaporizer. Fifty-nine websites met inclusion criteria, and 13 marketing claims were coded for main marketing messages in 2012.

Ninety-five percent of the websites made explicit or implicit health-related claims, 64% had a smoking cessation–related claim, 22% featured doctors, and 76% claimed that the product does not produce secondhand smoke. Comparisons to …