In 2006, Dr. Jackler created a research group which studies the impact tobacco advertising, marketing, and promotion. Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA).The initial priority of SRITA was to create a digital repository of tobacco advertising material to support scholarship, advocacy, judicial proceedings, and regulatory/legislative deliberations.  The online collection has grown to become the world’s largest repository of tobacco advertising images.  As of October 2022, the online collection tobacco.stanford.edu) comprises 60,209 tobacco advertisements and has garnered over 1 million unique users. The entire compendium of original tobacco advertisements from the 19th to 21st centuries now reside in the archives of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution where an ongoing exhibit is on display from our collection.

SRITA focuses upon original scholarship utilizing the unique resource of our advertising collection.  Our early academic focus was primarily historical study of advertisements using images of physicians and targeted to physicians in medical journals as well as overt health claims so prominent in the 20th century. A 2015 study on the ethics of trial testimony of physicians in defense of the tobacco industry received wide media attention. SRITA research interests include targeting of special populations such as of women, youth, and African Americans.

In recent years, our research has focused primarily upon emerging tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn devices, and oral pouches. We have conducted numerous studies of the promotion of popular products such as JUUL and IQOS, social media marketing, cessation advertising, nicotine delivery, and the role of flavors in attracting youth.  Our early 2019 white paper on “JUUL Marketing in its First 3 Years on the Market” has had major impact among regulators, legislators, and litigators.  In 2020, we released major research paper on the “Global Marketing of IQOS: The Philip Morris Campaign to Popularize “Heat-Not-Burn” Tobacco.”   In 2022, SRITA published comprehensive research papers on synthetic nicotine, tobacco industry public relations, and the marketing of menthol cigarettes.

Active projects include the marketing of recreational oral nicotine (pouches, lozenges, and gums) with the WHO and greenwashing by tobacco companies.  Aside from scholarship, SRITA has been extensively engaged in helping to inform policy through consultations with congress (testified in the House in July 2019 and the Senate in 2021 on the JUUL phenomenon), the FDA, and legislators, regulators, and attorneys general from numerous states.