Activationism: how tobacco marketers hacked global youth culture

Expanding on long-term, in-depth research carried out in partnership with the non-profit organization, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), we conducted a 10-country netnography concerning the use of branded events and social media to market tobacco brands to young people. Our study revealed how youth culture and activist discourse are subverted and transformed through an interlinked series of events, training sessions, sponsorships, branding moves, and recruitments. To distinguish this new form of marketing from activism, we term it “activationism.” Alongside offering an initial definition of the term, this paper broadly outlines some of its contours, theoretical connections, and implications.