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E-Cigarettes

Breathe Easier – img17200

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A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19976

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As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

No Toxins – img18385

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E-cig companies frequently use positive imagery and slogans that shift the attention away from the negatives of smoking. All the ads under this theme promote the benefits of vaping an e-cigarette (e-cig) including claims of no toxins in the exhaled vapor.

An ad for Nicocure promotes the product as “smoking without the side effects.” An ad for e_Health cigarettes promotes a list of positives of vaping an e-cig including, “No Burning. No Tar. No Cancerous Substances. No Ashtrays. No Horrible Smells, No Air Pollution.” An for Tru Smoke e-cigs asks consumers to “enjoy the look, feel and pleasure of smoking without the harmful effects of tobacco.”

Brand names take on a pre-eminent role in communicating to potential consumers something of value about a company. As is the case with the majority of products on the market, many brands of e-cigarettes (e-cigs) are named in order to send particular messages to consumers. Examples of this include Tru Smoke, Clean Smoke, AiR and Clearette. All these brands communicate to potential smokers that they are a healthful and intelligent choice.

Celebrity Vapors – img22916

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The growing popularity of e-cigarettes has led its manufacturers to leave no stone unturned in marketing to consumers. Taking a page out of the tobacco advertising playbook used in the mid 20th century, e-cigarette (e-cig) manufacturers are using celebrity endorsements to drum up enthusiasm for their products and hook teenagers. With celebrities endorsing e-cigs, billed as the “healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes,” smoking or in this case vaping of e-cigs has become a fashion statement once again.

As there are no marketing restrictions on e-cigs, slick television ads of celebrities puffing away on their personal vaporizers frequently bombard the airwaves. In Blu’s campaign, Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy urge people to take back their independence with the slogan “Rise from the Ashes.” The Blu ads featuring Dorff are so popular that he has become synonymous with the brand. In a recent interview, he said that people come up to him all the time and ask about the Blu e-cigarette. “I’m like the Blu man group,” Dorff said in the interview. In the ad featuring McCarthy, black and white shots of her exhaling smoke, highlight the blue tip of Blu e-cigs and make the entire experience look cool. In the ad, she goes on to say the best part of her e-cigarette is that she can use it ‘‘without scaring that special someone away’’ and can avoid kisses that ‘‘taste like an ashtray’’ when she’s out at her favorite club. Ads for e-cig manufacturer NJOY feature rocker Courtney Love, in an expletive-laced ad, in which supporters of indoor smoking bans are portrayed as “stuffy” and “stuck-up,” while
the rocker is portrayed as free-spirited and independent. e-cig companies have even photoshopped yesteryear celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Lennon using their products in ads.

Apart from direct endorsements by celebrities, there have also been subtle attempts by celebrities to promote e-cigs in movies and television shows. In an appearance on the David Letterman show, Katherine Heigl was seen vaping a Smokestik and proclaiming that she was addicted to the product, but it “wasn’t bad for you”. When CBS’s Two Broke Girls accosted their new, noisy upstairs neighbor, they were greeted at the door by Jennifer Coolidge with an e-cig in hand. Sean Penn was seen vaping an Njoy while talking about his work at Haiti at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Much like big tobacco in the past, e-cig companies are exploiting their association with Hollywood. e-cig manufacturers waste no opportunity in posting pictures of celebrities and films that use their products through their social media channels and websites. For instance, Blu e-cig’s Facebook page has a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio smoking what they claim is a Blu e-cig while filming Django Unchained. Blu e-cig’s website asks its customers to take a look at a film called “Plurality” because of the use of their e-cig in the film and provide a web link to the film’s trailer as well as a synopsis.

The insidious practice by big tobacco companies to use celebrity endorsements and testimonials for hawking their products was the norm during the 1920s to 1960s. The practice ended only in 1964 when the FDA banned it.

1. Eliott, S. (2013, August 29). E-Cigarette Makers’ Ads Echo Tobacco’s Heyday. New York Times.
Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/business/media/e-cigarette-makers-ads-
echo-tobaccos-heyday.html.

2. Johnson, G.A. (2013, October 16). Stephen Dorff: Actor a hot commodity in ads, films. San
Francisco Chronicle. Available at http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Stephen-Dorff-Actor-a-
hot-commodity-in-ads-films-4901477.php

Targeting Teens – img20990

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Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Discounts – img19395

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Pricing strategy is an important element of any product marketing campaign. Given that a big advantage that the e-Cigarette (e-cig) industry has over combustible cigarettes is its lower price point, it is not surprising to see price being a central element in many advertisements. One of the reasons that e-cigs can be priced lower than traditional cigarettes is that unlike conventional cigarettes, e-cigs do not contain any tobacco and therefore are not subject to the hefty cigarette tax but only to local sales tax.

As with all consumer products, discounts are widely used by the industry to drive short-term sales, remain competitive, and urge price-minded consumers to use the product. Price discounts offered by e-cig brands include percentage discounts, multi-pack offers, and “buy one get one free” deals. Since e-cigs are primarily sold online promotional discounts, especially through social media channels during the holidays, are extensively being used to grab a larger market share. As the e-cig market continues to grow and begins to utilize more retail outlets and convenience store chains to sell its products, it is expected that more e-cig companies like tobacco companies will offer retail owners incentives for ordering their products, placing advertisements in specific locations, and providing prime shelf space for their product. This in turn will drive more consumers to their products.

Price is a powerful tool that promote product use. For teenagers who are very price sensitive, the lower price of disposable e-cigs may make for an easy introduction to a product that is often described as a “gateway” to addiction. 1

1. Grana, Rachel A. “Electronic cigarettes: a new nicotine gateway?.” Journal of Adolescent Health 52.2 (2013): 135-136.

Auto Racing – img21060

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The growing popularity of e-cigarettes has led its manufacturers to leave no stone unturned
in marketing to consumers. Taking a page out of the tobacco advertising playbook used in the mid 20th century, e-cigarette (eCig) manufacturers are using celebrity endorsements to drum up enthusiasm for their products and hook teenagers. With celebrities endorsing eCigs, billed as the “healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes,” smoking or in this case vaping of eCigs has become a fashion statement once again.

As there are no marketing restrictions on eCigs, slick television ads of celebrities puffing away on their personal vaporizers frequently bombard the airwaves. In Blu’s campaign, Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy urge people to take back their independence with the slogan “Rise from the Ashes.” The Blu ads featuring Dorff are so popular that he has become synonymous with the brand. In a recent interview, he said that people come up to him all the time and ask about the Blu e-cigarette. “I’m like the Blu man group,” Dorff said in the interview. In the ad featuring McCarthy, black and white shots of her exhaling smoke, highlight the blue tip of Blu eCigs and make the entire experience look cool. In the ad, she goes on to say the best part of her e-cigarette is that she can use it ‘‘without scaring that special someone away’’ and can avoid kisses that ‘‘taste like an ashtray’’ when she’s out at her favorite club. Ads for eCig manufacturer NJOY feature rocker Courtney Love, in an expletive-laced ad, in which supporters of indoor smoking bans are portrayed as “stuffy” and “stuck-up,” while
the rocker is portrayed as free-spirited and independent. eCig companies have even photoshopped ysteryear celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Lennon using their products in ads.

Apart from direct endorsements by celebrities, there have also been subtle attempts by
celebrities to promote eCigs in movies and television shows. In an appearance on the David
Letterman show, Katherine Heigl was seen vaping a Smokestik and proclaiming that she was
addicted to the product, but it “wasn’t bad for you”. When CBS’s Two Broke Girls accosted their new, noisy upstairs neighbor, they were greeted at the door by Jennifer Coolidge with an eCig in
hand. Sean Penn was seen vaping an Njoy while talking about his work at Haiti at the Clinton Global
Initiative.

Much like big tobacco in the past, eCig companies are exploiting their association with Hollywood. eCig manufacturers waste no opportunity in posting pictures of celebrities and films that use their products through their social media channels and websites. For instance, Blu eCig’s Facebook page has a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio smoking what they claim is a Blu eCig while filming Django Unchained. Blu eCig’s website asks its customers to take a look at a film called “Plurality” because of the use of their eCig in the film and provide a web link to the film’s trailer as well as a synopsis.

The insidious practice by big tobacco companies to use celebrity endorsements and testimonials for hawking their products was the norm during the 1920s to 1960s. The practice ended only in 1964 when the FDA banned it.

1. Eliott, S. (2013, August 29). E-Cigarette Makers’ Ads Echo Tobacco’s Heyday. New York Times.
Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/business/media/e-cigarette-makers-ads-
echo-tobaccos-heyday.html.

2. Johnson, G.A. (2013, October 16). Stephen Dorff: Actor a hot commodity in ads, films. San
Francisco Chronicle. Available at http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Stephen-Dorff-Actor-a-
hot-commodity-in-ads-films-4901477.php

Smoke Anywhere – img17119

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Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Freedom Health Consequences – img22477

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Freedom from health consequences is a common theme that appears in many electronic cigarette (e-cig) advertisements. A major distinguishing factor between e-cigs and combustible cigarettes is that the electronic version does not contain tobacco and therefore does not produce any tar, a deadly substance produced as a by product in conventional cigarettes. In their advertisements, e-cig brands heavily emphasize the electronic devices as a solution to the ills that accompany combustible cigarette products.

The brands primarily advertise the following freedoms from health consequences: freedom from the harmful substances found in traditional cigarettes (e.g. tar), freedom from the harmful effects of smoking (eg. freedom from disease); and freedom from fear.

Many brands advertise their e-cigs as being free from various substances. The most common may be “tar free,” “smoke free,” “tobacco free,” “free of ash,” or “carcinogen free,” but some online advertisements have gone so far as to name the chemicals found in conventional cigarettes as a scare tactic to lure more customers. For instance, an ad “Enjoy Freedom from Acetic Acid, Ammonia, Arsenic, Butane” and eight other chemicals that may be found in cigarettes.

Some brands reference the absence of consequences of vaping. These claims can be as specific as “breathe freely” and “odor free” or as broad as “guilt free smoking” or the freedom from fear, implying the most ominous health consequences. For instance, V2 Cigs ads often appear with the slogan, “Smoke Free – Odor Free – Guilt Free,” and White Cloud e-cigs ads appear with the tagline, “ Guilt Free Smoking.”

The freedom from health consequences ads suggest to users that vaping liberates them from regulation as well as ill-health consequences.

Breathe Easier – img17201

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A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19977

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As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Long Life – img21840

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In their attempt to be seen as a safe, healthy product, many e-cigarette (e-cig) companies advertise an association between their brand and a long, presumably healthy life. e-cig companies use a number of methods to drive home this connection, from slogans in ads to the name of the company itself.

A number of brand names are synonymous with a longer life. Examples range from the brand “Forever” to the more direct “Smoke To Live (TM)”. The name “Vapor4Life” has a number of connotations, from using an e-cig all your life, to vaping in order to live.

Many ads feature slogans and images with life-related or life-prolonging connotations. ePuffer runs the tagline “Extending Smoker’s Life!” An image from electronic cigarette reviews shows a traditional combustible cigarette with the slogan “Stop…you Burn your life flower”; the smoke from the cigarette is arranged in the shape of a flower with a red, burning, center. Contrasted to this on the other side of the ad is a seemingly healthy, happy woman vaping; the vapor forms no pattern.

The company e-ciglife emphasizes the associates between e-cigs and life; their logo is a tree, green and abundant with fruit; and their slogan reads “e-ciglife: Get more out of it!”, suggesting vaping can help you get more out of life.

The South Beach e-cig company uses dark humor to emphasize the destructive quality of cigarettes. The company pinned a comic to their Pinterest page from bizarrocomics.com that shows a glamorous woman in a black dress lighting a cigarette. She is sitting at a table strewn with alcohol, guns, a knife and other harmful objects. Opposite her is the figure of Death, clad in a black robe, saying, “Are you flirting with me?”

The tactic of implying long life harks back to the tobacco advertising strategies of old where claims were often made about the health benefits of smoking cigarettes. Very little research has been done about the long-term health consequences of vaping, making such claims unfounded and potentially dangerous.

Doctors & Nurses – img22019

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In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Flavor Varieties – img18632

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A patently obvious device used by e-cigarette (e-cig) companies to attract teens is the promotion of youth-oriented flavors. In its flavored product lines, e-cig manufacturers have far exceeded the flavorings used by the combustible tobacco industry. Almost every flavor addictive available in the market is available as a vapor juice. With many e-cig manufacturers allowing consumers to pick and mix their own flavorings, the possibilities are endless.

e-cigs and vapor juices are available in a number including candy flavors such as gummi bears and bubble gum; baked good flavors such as peach cobbler and apple pie, alcoholic flavors such as beer and peach schnapps, variety of fruit and berry flavors and mint.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. In a recent study, researchers at UCSF who analyzed data from the 2011 and 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that adolescents who used e-cigs were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to quit smoking1. In another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs2.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. UCSF: E-Cigarettes: Gateway to Nicotine Addiction for U.S. Teens, Says UCSF Study. Available at https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/03/112316/e-cigarettes-gateway-nicotine-addiction-us-teens-says-ucsf-study

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Celebrity Vapors – img22917

by

The growing popularity of e-cigarettes has led its manufacturers to leave no stone unturned in marketing to consumers. Taking a page out of the tobacco advertising playbook used in the mid 20th century, e-cigarette (e-cig) manufacturers are using celebrity endorsements to drum up enthusiasm for their products and hook teenagers. With celebrities endorsing e-cigs, billed as the “healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes,” smoking or in this case vaping of e-cigs has become a fashion statement once again.

As there are no marketing restrictions on e-cigs, slick television ads of celebrities puffing away on their personal vaporizers frequently bombard the airwaves. In Blu’s campaign, Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy urge people to take back their independence with the slogan “Rise from the Ashes.” The Blu ads featuring Dorff are so popular that he has become synonymous with the brand. In a recent interview, he said that people come up to him all the time and ask about the Blu e-cigarette. “I’m like the Blu man group,” Dorff said in the interview. In the ad featuring McCarthy, black and white shots of her exhaling smoke, highlight the blue tip of Blu e-cigs and make the entire experience look cool. In the ad, she goes on to say the best part of her e-cigarette is that she can use it ‘‘without scaring that special someone away’’ and can avoid kisses that ‘‘taste like an ashtray’’ when she’s out at her favorite club. Ads for e-cig manufacturer NJOY feature rocker Courtney Love, in an expletive-laced ad, in which supporters of indoor smoking bans are portrayed as “stuffy” and “stuck-up,” while
the rocker is portrayed as free-spirited and independent. e-cig companies have even photoshopped yesteryear celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Lennon using their products in ads.

Apart from direct endorsements by celebrities, there have also been subtle attempts by celebrities to promote e-cigs in movies and television shows. In an appearance on the David Letterman show, Katherine Heigl was seen vaping a Smokestik and proclaiming that she was addicted to the product, but it “wasn’t bad for you”. When CBS’s Two Broke Girls accosted their new, noisy upstairs neighbor, they were greeted at the door by Jennifer Coolidge with an e-cig in hand. Sean Penn was seen vaping an Njoy while talking about his work at Haiti at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Much like big tobacco in the past, e-cig companies are exploiting their association with Hollywood. e-cig manufacturers waste no opportunity in posting pictures of celebrities and films that use their products through their social media channels and websites. For instance, Blu e-cig’s Facebook page has a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio smoking what they claim is a Blu e-cig while filming Django Unchained. Blu e-cig’s website asks its customers to take a look at a film called “Plurality” because of the use of their e-cig in the film and provide a web link to the film’s trailer as well as a synopsis.

The insidious practice by big tobacco companies to use celebrity endorsements and testimonials for hawking their products was the norm during the 1920s to 1960s. The practice ended only in 1964 when the FDA banned it.

1. Eliott, S. (2013, August 29). E-Cigarette Makers’ Ads Echo Tobacco’s Heyday. New York Times.
Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/business/media/e-cigarette-makers-ads-
echo-tobaccos-heyday.html.

2. Johnson, G.A. (2013, October 16). Stephen Dorff: Actor a hot commodity in ads, films. San
Francisco Chronicle. Available at http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Stephen-Dorff-Actor-a-
hot-commodity-in-ads-films-4901477.php

Targeting Teens – img20991

by

Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Sex Sells – img21021

by

Tobacco companies know as much as anybody that “sex sells,” and they have no qualms with making use of phallic symbols or with objectifying women to sell their products.

Blu, the leading brand of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), placed an advertisement for its product in February 2014. The ad featured the Blu logo front and center on an itsy bitsy bikini bottom of a shapely model. On the online version of the ad you could even zoom in on the picture. You don’t see the woman’s face only her belly button to her legs. Accompanying the ad was the slogan “Slim. Charged. Ready to Go.” The obvious sexual reference of the slogan is hard to miss. Blu also sponsored parties at Playboy’s top party schools that allowed partygoers to meet the Playmates. Playboy itself got into the act by creating its own Playboy e-cigs. Some of the ads for the Playboy e-cigs with the trademarked bunny symbol advertised free condoms with the purchase of the vapor device.

Phantom Smoke is a brand that in their advertising is shameless in its objectification of women. Many of the ads feature skimpily clothed women in subservient positions to men. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly discarded on the rim of the bathtub. In another ad, a woman wearing racy black lingerie is on the floor holding onto an out stretched leg of a man sitting on a couch with an e-cig in his hand. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

Other tobacco ads exploit the “sex sells” market through innuendo and subliminal messaging. Many ads use phallic imagery.

Apart from online and print advertisements that exploit sex to sell the product, online videos are replete with sexual innuendo. An online video for Blu exploits sex to promote a cessation message. An ad for VIP e-cig featured a sultry-looking woman saying: “I want you to get it out. I want to see it. Feel it. Hold it. Put it in my mouth. I want to see how great it tastes.” The online and TV ad, which ran in Britain, attracted 937 complaints about its “overtly sexual” tone.

Smoke Anywhere – img17120

by

Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Breathe Easier – img17202

by

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19978

by

As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img22020

by

In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Celebrity Vapors – img22918

by

The growing popularity of e-cigarettes has led its manufacturers to leave no stone unturned in marketing to consumers. Taking a page out of the tobacco advertising playbook used in the mid 20th century, e-cigarette (e-cig) manufacturers are using celebrity endorsements to drum up enthusiasm for their products and hook teenagers. With celebrities endorsing e-cigs, billed as the “healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes,” smoking or in this case vaping of e-cigs has become a fashion statement once again.

As there are no marketing restrictions on e-cigs, slick television ads of celebrities puffing away on their personal vaporizers frequently bombard the airwaves. In Blu’s campaign, Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy urge people to take back their independence with the slogan “Rise from the Ashes.” The Blu ads featuring Dorff are so popular that he has become synonymous with the brand. In a recent interview, he said that people come up to him all the time and ask about the Blu e-cigarette. “I’m like the Blu man group,” Dorff said in the interview. In the ad featuring McCarthy, black and white shots of her exhaling smoke, highlight the blue tip of Blu e-cigs and make the entire experience look cool. In the ad, she goes on to say the best part of her e-cigarette is that she can use it ‘‘without scaring that special someone away’’ and can avoid kisses that ‘‘taste like an ashtray’’ when she’s out at her favorite club. Ads for e-cig manufacturer NJOY feature rocker Courtney Love, in an expletive-laced ad, in which supporters of indoor smoking bans are portrayed as “stuffy” and “stuck-up,” while
the rocker is portrayed as free-spirited and independent. e-cig companies have even photoshopped yesteryear celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Lennon using their products in ads.

Apart from direct endorsements by celebrities, there have also been subtle attempts by celebrities to promote e-cigs in movies and television shows. In an appearance on the David Letterman show, Katherine Heigl was seen vaping a Smokestik and proclaiming that she was addicted to the product, but it “wasn’t bad for you”. When CBS’s Two Broke Girls accosted their new, noisy upstairs neighbor, they were greeted at the door by Jennifer Coolidge with an e-cig in hand. Sean Penn was seen vaping an Njoy while talking about his work at Haiti at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Much like big tobacco in the past, e-cig companies are exploiting their association with Hollywood. e-cig manufacturers waste no opportunity in posting pictures of celebrities and films that use their products through their social media channels and websites. For instance, Blu e-cig’s Facebook page has a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio smoking what they claim is a Blu e-cig while filming Django Unchained. Blu e-cig’s website asks its customers to take a look at a film called “Plurality” because of the use of their e-cig in the film and provide a web link to the film’s trailer as well as a synopsis.

The insidious practice by big tobacco companies to use celebrity endorsements and testimonials for hawking their products was the norm during the 1920s to 1960s. The practice ended only in 1964 when the FDA banned it.

1. Eliott, S. (2013, August 29). E-Cigarette Makers’ Ads Echo Tobacco’s Heyday. New York Times.
Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/business/media/e-cigarette-makers-ads-
echo-tobaccos-heyday.html.

2. Johnson, G.A. (2013, October 16). Stephen Dorff: Actor a hot commodity in ads, films. San
Francisco Chronicle. Available at http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Stephen-Dorff-Actor-a-
hot-commodity-in-ads-films-4901477.php

Targeting Teens – img20992

by

Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Smoke Anywhere – img17121

by

Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Breathe Easier – img17203

by

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19979

by

As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img22021

by

In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Smarter – img18489

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Brand names take on a pre-eminent role in communicating to potential consumers something of value about a company. As is the case with the majority of products on the market, many brands of e-cigarettes (e-cigs) are named in order to send particular messages to consumers.

Many brands of e-cig companies use variations of the word “smart” in their ad brand names (e.g. intellicig, smart e-cigarette, Kanger e-smart). The choice of the brand names also extends to tobacco companies' efforts to ease the concerns of worried smokers In this case it is clear that the brand name is intended to convey to potential users that they are smart/smarter for picking the digital product over conventional cigarettes.

E-cig companies frequently also use positive imagery and slogans that shift the attention away from the negatives of smoking- the implied message is that you would be smarter/more intelligent to use an e-cig that a convention cigarette. Thus an ad for Veppo has the image of Albert Einstein accompanied by the following text, “Weak People Smoke. Strong people Smoke Less. Intelligent People Vape.” Visual images containing symbols of health, pleasure and social desirability also convey images of a healthful product. An ad for Vaposs e-cig has the image of a money smoking a combustible cigarette and a macho man smoking a cigarette. The brand names and messages are intended to convey to consumers that they can depend and trust the brand.

Celebrity Vapors – img22919

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The growing popularity of e-cigarettes has led its manufacturers to leave no stone unturned in marketing to consumers. Taking a page out of the tobacco advertising playbook used in the mid 20th century, e-cigarette (e-cig) manufacturers are using celebrity endorsements to drum up enthusiasm for their products and hook teenagers. With celebrities endorsing e-cigs, billed as the “healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes,” smoking or in this case vaping of e-cigs has become a fashion statement once again.

As there are no marketing restrictions on e-cigs, slick television ads of celebrities puffing away on their personal vaporizers frequently bombard the airwaves. In Blu’s campaign, Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy urge people to take back their independence with the slogan “Rise from the Ashes.” The Blu ads featuring Dorff are so popular that he has become synonymous with the brand. In a recent interview, he said that people come up to him all the time and ask about the Blu e-cigarette. “I’m like the Blu man group,” Dorff said in the interview. In the ad featuring McCarthy, black and white shots of her exhaling smoke, highlight the blue tip of Blu e-cigs and make the entire experience look cool. In the ad, she goes on to say the best part of her e-cigarette is that she can use it ‘‘without scaring that special someone away’’ and can avoid kisses that ‘‘taste like an ashtray’’ when she’s out at her favorite club. Ads for e-cig manufacturer NJOY feature rocker Courtney Love, in an expletive-laced ad, in which supporters of indoor smoking bans are portrayed as “stuffy” and “stuck-up,” while
the rocker is portrayed as free-spirited and independent. e-cig companies have even photoshopped yesteryear celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Lennon using their products in ads.

Apart from direct endorsements by celebrities, there have also been subtle attempts by celebrities to promote e-cigs in movies and television shows. In an appearance on the David Letterman show, Katherine Heigl was seen vaping a Smokestik and proclaiming that she was addicted to the product, but it “wasn’t bad for you”. When CBS’s Two Broke Girls accosted their new, noisy upstairs neighbor, they were greeted at the door by Jennifer Coolidge with an e-cig in hand. Sean Penn was seen vaping an Njoy while talking about his work at Haiti at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Much like big tobacco in the past, e-cig companies are exploiting their association with Hollywood. e-cig manufacturers waste no opportunity in posting pictures of celebrities and films that use their products through their social media channels and websites. For instance, Blu e-cig’s Facebook page has a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio smoking what they claim is a Blu e-cig while filming Django Unchained. Blu e-cig’s website asks its customers to take a look at a film called “Plurality” because of the use of their e-cig in the film and provide a web link to the film’s trailer as well as a synopsis.

The insidious practice by big tobacco companies to use celebrity endorsements and testimonials for hawking their products was the norm during the 1920s to 1960s. The practice ended only in 1964 when the FDA banned it.

1. Eliott, S. (2013, August 29). E-Cigarette Makers’ Ads Echo Tobacco’s Heyday. New York Times.
Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/business/media/e-cigarette-makers-ads-
echo-tobaccos-heyday.html.

2. Johnson, G.A. (2013, October 16). Stephen Dorff: Actor a hot commodity in ads, films. San
Francisco Chronicle. Available at http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Stephen-Dorff-Actor-a-
hot-commodity-in-ads-films-4901477.php

Targeting Teens – img20993

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Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Sex Sells – img21023

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Tobacco companies know as much as anybody that “sex sells,” and they have no qualms with making use of phallic symbols or with objectifying women to sell their products.

Blu, the leading brand of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), placed an advertisement for its product in February 2014. The ad featured the Blu logo front and center on an itsy bitsy bikini bottom of a shapely model. On the online version of the ad you could even zoom in on the picture. You don’t see the woman’s face only her belly button to her legs. Accompanying the ad was the slogan “Slim. Charged. Ready to Go.” The obvious sexual reference of the slogan is hard to miss. Blu also sponsored parties at Playboy’s top party schools that allowed partygoers to meet the Playmates. Playboy itself got into the act by creating its own Playboy e-cigs. Some of the ads for the Playboy e-cigs with the trademarked bunny symbol advertised free condoms with the purchase of the vapor device.

Phantom Smoke is a brand that in their advertising is shameless in its objectification of women. Many of the ads feature skimpily clothed women in subservient positions to men. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly discarded on the rim of the bathtub. In another ad, a woman wearing racy black lingerie is on the floor holding onto an out stretched leg of a man sitting on a couch with an e-cig in his hand. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

Other tobacco ads exploit the “sex sells” market through innuendo and subliminal messaging. Many ads use phallic imagery.

Apart from online and print advertisements that exploit sex to sell the product, online videos are replete with sexual innuendo. An online video for Blu exploits sex to promote a cessation message. An ad for VIP e-cig featured a sultry-looking woman saying: “I want you to get it out. I want to see it. Feel it. Hold it. Put it in my mouth. I want to see how great it tastes.” The online and TV ad, which ran in Britain, attracted 937 complaints about its “overtly sexual” tone.

Smoke Anywhere – img17122

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Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Breathe Easier – img17204

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A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19980

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As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img22022

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In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Smarter – img18490

by

Brand names take on a pre-eminent role in communicating to potential consumers something of value about a company. As is the case with the majority of products on the market, many brands of e-cigarettes (e-cigs) are named in order to send particular messages to consumers.

Many brands of e-cig companies use variations of the word “smart” in their ad brand names (e.g. intellicig, smart e-cigarette, Kanger e-smart). The choice of the brand names also extends to tobacco companies' efforts to ease the concerns of worried smokers In this case it is clear that the brand name is intended to convey to potential users that they are smart/smarter for picking the digital product over conventional cigarettes.

E-cig companies frequently also use positive imagery and slogans that shift the attention away from the negatives of smoking- the implied message is that you would be smarter/more intelligent to use an e-cig that a convention cigarette. Thus an ad for Veppo has the image of Albert Einstein accompanied by the following text, “Weak People Smoke. Strong people Smoke Less. Intelligent People Vape.” Visual images containing symbols of health, pleasure and social desirability also convey images of a healthful product. An ad for Vaposs e-cig has the image of a money smoking a combustible cigarette and a macho man smoking a cigarette. The brand names and messages are intended to convey to consumers that they can depend and trust the brand.

Celebrity Vapors – img22920

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The growing popularity of e-cigarettes has led its manufacturers to leave no stone unturned in marketing to consumers. Taking a page out of the tobacco advertising playbook used in the mid 20th century, e-cigarette (e-cig) manufacturers are using celebrity endorsements to drum up enthusiasm for their products and hook teenagers. With celebrities endorsing e-cigs, billed as the “healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes,” smoking or in this case vaping of e-cigs has become a fashion statement once again.

As there are no marketing restrictions on e-cigs, slick television ads of celebrities puffing away on their personal vaporizers frequently bombard the airwaves. In Blu’s campaign, Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy urge people to take back their independence with the slogan “Rise from the Ashes.” The Blu ads featuring Dorff are so popular that he has become synonymous with the brand. In a recent interview, he said that people come up to him all the time and ask about the Blu e-cigarette. “I’m like the Blu man group,” Dorff said in the interview. In the ad featuring McCarthy, black and white shots of her exhaling smoke, highlight the blue tip of Blu e-cigs and make the entire experience look cool. In the ad, she goes on to say the best part of her e-cigarette is that she can use it ‘‘without scaring that special someone away’’ and can avoid kisses that ‘‘taste like an ashtray’’ when she’s out at her favorite club. Ads for e-cig manufacturer NJOY feature rocker Courtney Love, in an expletive-laced ad, in which supporters of indoor smoking bans are portrayed as “stuffy” and “stuck-up,” while
the rocker is portrayed as free-spirited and independent. e-cig companies have even photoshopped yesteryear celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Lennon using their products in ads.

Apart from direct endorsements by celebrities, there have also been subtle attempts by celebrities to promote e-cigs in movies and television shows. In an appearance on the David Letterman show, Katherine Heigl was seen vaping a Smokestik and proclaiming that she was addicted to the product, but it “wasn’t bad for you”. When CBS’s Two Broke Girls accosted their new, noisy upstairs neighbor, they were greeted at the door by Jennifer Coolidge with an e-cig in hand. Sean Penn was seen vaping an Njoy while talking about his work at Haiti at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Much like big tobacco in the past, e-cig companies are exploiting their association with Hollywood. e-cig manufacturers waste no opportunity in posting pictures of celebrities and films that use their products through their social media channels and websites. For instance, Blu e-cig’s Facebook page has a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio smoking what they claim is a Blu e-cig while filming Django Unchained. Blu e-cig’s website asks its customers to take a look at a film called “Plurality” because of the use of their e-cig in the film and provide a web link to the film’s trailer as well as a synopsis.

The insidious practice by big tobacco companies to use celebrity endorsements and testimonials for hawking their products was the norm during the 1920s to 1960s. The practice ended only in 1964 when the FDA banned it.

1. Eliott, S. (2013, August 29). E-Cigarette Makers’ Ads Echo Tobacco’s Heyday. New York Times.
Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/business/media/e-cigarette-makers-ads-
echo-tobaccos-heyday.html.

2. Johnson, G.A. (2013, October 16). Stephen Dorff: Actor a hot commodity in ads, films. San
Francisco Chronicle. Available at http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Stephen-Dorff-Actor-a-
hot-commodity-in-ads-films-4901477.php

Valentine's Day – img25272

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The electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry has taken every opportunity to associate itself with holidays and cultural symbols, which bring to mind happy times and celebration. Cherished patriotic and cultural icons can be found in a number of e-cig ads. Among the innumerable examples are George Washington, Mt. Rushmore, British royalty, the US flag, the Statue of Liberty, soldiers, astronauts, Santa Claus, and even the beloved family pet.

Events such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all promoted through discounts and contests. An ad by Green Smoke for Valentine’s Day has an e-cig positioned behind chocolate dipped strawberries. The slogan for the ad reads, “Give your Lover The Valentine’s Day Gift of a Lifetime.” Many ads celebrating Father’s Day and Mother’s Day contain messages of the healthfulness of the product and seek to encourage users to switch from traditional cigarettes to the electronic device. An NJOY ad, timed for Father's Day, contains the image of a father and son sitting beside each other on a paddleboat. The text of the ad read “some traditions shouldn't be passed down. Switch today.”

Our collection also includes several advertisements of Santa Claus enjoying an e-cig. E-cigs have also been displayed as stocking stuffers, Christmas ornaments, and as reindeers.

Targeting Teens – img20994

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Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Sex Sells – img21024

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Tobacco companies know as much as anybody that “sex sells,” and they have no qualms with making use of phallic symbols or with objectifying women to sell their products.

Blu, the leading brand of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), placed an advertisement for its product in February 2014. The ad featured the Blu logo front and center on an itsy bitsy bikini bottom of a shapely model. On the online version of the ad you could even zoom in on the picture. You don’t see the woman’s face only her belly button to her legs. Accompanying the ad was the slogan “Slim. Charged. Ready to Go.” The obvious sexual reference of the slogan is hard to miss. Blu also sponsored parties at Playboy’s top party schools that allowed partygoers to meet the Playmates. Playboy itself got into the act by creating its own Playboy e-cigs. Some of the ads for the Playboy e-cigs with the trademarked bunny symbol advertised free condoms with the purchase of the vapor device.

Phantom Smoke is a brand that in their advertising is shameless in its objectification of women. Many of the ads feature skimpily clothed women in subservient positions to men. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly discarded on the rim of the bathtub. In another ad, a woman wearing racy black lingerie is on the floor holding onto an out stretched leg of a man sitting on a couch with an e-cig in his hand. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

Other tobacco ads exploit the “sex sells” market through innuendo and subliminal messaging. Many ads use phallic imagery.

Apart from online and print advertisements that exploit sex to sell the product, online videos are replete with sexual innuendo. An online video for Blu exploits sex to promote a cessation message. An ad for VIP e-cig featured a sultry-looking woman saying: “I want you to get it out. I want to see it. Feel it. Hold it. Put it in my mouth. I want to see how great it tastes.” The online and TV ad, which ran in Britain, attracted 937 complaints about its “overtly sexual” tone.

Cigalikes – img18985

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There are two different styles of e-cigarettes available in the market. E-cigs that look like technologically advanced pens and smart phones and e-cigs that look and feel much like a traditional cigarette. It is under this latter category that brands such as NJOY, Premium Ecigs, Play Vapor and Real Feel belong.

For many heavy smokers, every detail of the smoking experience from the way the cigarette feels in their hand, to the taste and smell of the product, to the way it burns the throat, to how they ash it contributes to their smoking pleasure. Some studies have shown that if these sensations are removed that smoking satisfaction decreases.

In tempting these heavy smokers to switch over to e-cigs, many eCig brands are trying to mimic as much of the taste and feel of conventional cigarettes as they can. For instance both Real and NJOY are so closely designed to imitate a traditional cigarette that they include a faux gold ring, cartridge color and a tip that resembles glowing embers. NJOY and Metro eCigs are also designed to be the same size as a conventional cigarette. NJOY manufacturers are also working to get the eCig to weigh the same as a conventional cigarette.

For many heavy smokers, eCigs miss the mark because they don’t produce a throat hit, the burn at the back of your throat when you smoke. While eCig manufacturers are getting better at imitating this feature of conventional cigarettes too, for the moment it still isn’t there.

Nicotine – img19790

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Electronic cigarettes, which are often advertised as an alternative to conventional cigarettes and sometimes advertised as a cessation product, are available in a variety of nicotine levels. Based on the nicotine level of the eCig, a single eCig can have as much nicotine as a whole pack of cigarettes. It is the highly addictive nature of nicotine that makes smokers crave another cigarette and keeps many from quitting.

The nicotine in eCigs is usually mixed with solvents such as propylene glycol and glycerin. To this base solution is added a number of sweetened flavorings such as peach schnapps, root beer, cotton candy, and chocolate to make the product more palatable to its consumers. The liquid nicotine is available to consumers as prefilled cartridges or small refill bottles (think of this in terms of printer ink refills).

Many ads for liquid nicotine highlight the pleasant fruity taste of the liquid. For instance, an ad for NicQuid contains the image of circle sliced up and each segment filled with lushly colored fruits and vegetables. Another ad for NicQuid contains no image of liquid nicotine solution. Instead the central image is of a glass of strawberry and peach smoothie and the title “Southern Freeze”. These images are obviously intended to subliminally convey the healthfulness of the product. An ad for NicVape contains the image of small bottles of liquid nicotine and fresh fruits slicing through the water. This image is very similar to ads used by the food industry to promote flavored waters and electrolytes. Again the image is used to connote the freshness of the product and its purity.

Bottles and cartridges of vape juice are usually labeled according to their nicotine content per milliliter. Products labeled as “extra strong/very high” contain 36mg of nicotine, “strong/high” contain 24 mg of nicotine, “regular/medium” contain 16 mg of nicotine, “light/ low” contains 11 mg of nicotine, “ultra light/very low” contains 8 mg of nicotine or “zero/no nicotine” if they are nicotine free.

While it is true that eCigs deliver nicotine with much lower levels of many of the toxins found in conventional cigarette products, since it is not yet regulated by the FDA the chemicals found in these products and the purity of the nicotine vary widely. Some recent studies have also found that there was a significant difference between the advertised and true levels of nicotine in the cartridges and refill solutions. A study1 also found traces of nicotine in products labeled as “no nicotine.” The lack of regulation and wrongly labeled products can mislead consumers looking to kick their smoking addiction by vaping eCigs.

References:
1. Goniewicz ML, Kuma T, Gawron M, Knysak J, Kosmider L (2012) Nicotine Levels in Electronic Cigarettes. Nicotine Tob Res Apr 22.

Vape Festivals – img24692

by

With electronic cigarettes (eCigs) gaining in popularity, vape festivals are occurring all over the country. According to the organizers of these events, the festivals provide an opportunity for manufacturers as well as consumers to be “educated” about the products.

The vape festivals are also a huge attraction for individuals seeking to try the electronic devices as most manufacturers at the events offer free samples as well as plenty of giveaways. The practice of free samples and competitions has been a marketing ploy long used by the tobacco industry to target new consumers, primarily youth.

In addition to having booths that display eCig devices and related accessories, many of the vape festivals also hold “Cloud Chasing” competitions. These competitions have become immensely popular with a section of vaping enthusiasts. The contestants at these competitions take turns in exhaling gigantic clouds of vapor. Some of these competitions have been called by the vaping community as “Vape Olympics” and “X-Games of Vaping.” Videos of these competitions as well as pictures and videos of vape tricks and vape events posted on social media sites make the use of eCigs cool and trendy, a disturbing trend as it may encourage youth to try the product.

Smoke Anywhere – img17123

by

Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Breathe Easier – img17205

by

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19981

by

As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img22023

by

In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Ice Cream/Popsicles – img22087

by

The e-Cigarette (e-cig) industry zealously claims to target only adult and primarily established smokers. As much as e-cig companies deny it, the plethora of vape juices in alcoholic or sweetened flavors and sugary names serve to make these products appealing to children and teenagers who are curious to experiment with tobacco products and are taken in by false notions of the “safe nature” of e-cigs.

Appealing to an almost universal love for ice cream by children and adults alike, e-cigs and ejuice are available in a number of sweet flavors including caramel frappe, ice cream pops, vanilla, mint and banana split. The sweet flavored additives in the vape juice help mask the bitterness of tobacco and the nicotine serves to addict teens.

The images used in the ads are heavily borrowed from the food industry and some of the ads have kid-friendly slogans such as Lucky Flavor Store’s red, white and blue popsicle labelled, “It’s the bomb.” Some creative names used by the e-cig industry to market the product include Desert Moon Vapor’s Sultrysickle, Rocket Fuel’s Rocket Pop and WizMix’s Primal Icecream. In addition to standard flavors, customers at several online as well as retail boutique vape stores can create their own unique flavors by mixing any number of essences at a variety of nicotine strengths for a personalized vape.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs1.

< p> With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Targeting Teens – img20995

by

Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Sex Sells – img21025

by

Tobacco companies know as much as anybody that “sex sells,” and they have no qualms with making use of phallic symbols or with objectifying women to sell their products.

Blu, the leading brand of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), placed an advertisement for its product in February 2014. The ad featured the Blu logo front and center on an itsy bitsy bikini bottom of a shapely model. On the online version of the ad you could even zoom in on the picture. You don’t see the woman’s face only her belly button to her legs. Accompanying the ad was the slogan “Slim. Charged. Ready to Go.” The obvious sexual reference of the slogan is hard to miss. Blu also sponsored parties at Playboy’s top party schools that allowed partygoers to meet the Playmates. Playboy itself got into the act by creating its own Playboy e-cigs. Some of the ads for the Playboy e-cigs with the trademarked bunny symbol advertised free condoms with the purchase of the vapor device.

Phantom Smoke is a brand that in their advertising is shameless in its objectification of women. Many of the ads feature skimpily clothed women in subservient positions to men. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly discarded on the rim of the bathtub. In another ad, a woman wearing racy black lingerie is on the floor holding onto an out stretched leg of a man sitting on a couch with an e-cig in his hand. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

Other tobacco ads exploit the “sex sells” market through innuendo and subliminal messaging. Many ads use phallic imagery.

Apart from online and print advertisements that exploit sex to sell the product, online videos are replete with sexual innuendo. An online video for Blu exploits sex to promote a cessation message. An ad for VIP e-cig featured a sultry-looking woman saying: “I want you to get it out. I want to see it. Feel it. Hold it. Put it in my mouth. I want to see how great it tastes.” The online and TV ad, which ran in Britain, attracted 937 complaints about its “overtly sexual” tone.

Cigalikes – img18986

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There are two different styles of e-cigarettes available in the market. E-cigs that look like technologically advanced pens and smart phones and e-cigs that look and feel much like a traditional cigarette. It is under this latter category that brands such as NJOY, Premium Ecigs, Play Vapor and Real Feel belong.

For many heavy smokers, every detail of the smoking experience from the way the cigarette feels in their hand, to the taste and smell of the product, to the way it burns the throat, to how they ash it contributes to their smoking pleasure. Some studies have shown that if these sensations are removed that smoking satisfaction decreases.

In tempting these heavy smokers to switch over to e-cigs, many eCig brands are trying to mimic as much of the taste and feel of conventional cigarettes as they can. For instance both Real and NJOY are so closely designed to imitate a traditional cigarette that they include a faux gold ring, cartridge color and a tip that resembles glowing embers. NJOY and Metro eCigs are also designed to be the same size as a conventional cigarette. NJOY manufacturers are also working to get the eCig to weigh the same as a conventional cigarette.

For many heavy smokers, eCigs miss the mark because they don’t produce a throat hit, the burn at the back of your throat when you smoke. While eCig manufacturers are getting better at imitating this feature of conventional cigarettes too, for the moment it still isn’t there.

Smoke Anywhere – img17124

by

Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Breathe Easier – img17206

by

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19982

by

As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img22024

by

In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Targeting Teens – img20996

by

Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Smoke Anywhere – img17125

by

Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Breathe Easier – img17207

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A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19983

by

As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img23964

by

In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Flavor Varieties – img18640

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A patently obvious device used by e-cigarette (e-cig) companies to attract teens is the promotion of youth-oriented flavors. In its flavored product lines, e-cig manufacturers have far exceeded the flavorings used by the combustible tobacco industry. Almost every flavor addictive available in the market is available as a vapor juice. With many e-cig manufacturers allowing consumers to pick and mix their own flavorings, the possibilities are endless.

e-cigs and vapor juices are available in a number including candy flavors such as gummi bears and bubble gum; baked good flavors such as peach cobbler and apple pie, alcoholic flavors such as beer and peach schnapps, variety of fruit and berry flavors and mint.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. In a recent study, researchers at UCSF who analyzed data from the 2011 and 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that adolescents who used e-cigs were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to quit smoking1. In another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs2.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. UCSF: E-Cigarettes: Gateway to Nicotine Addiction for U.S. Teens, Says UCSF Study. Available at https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/03/112316/e-cigarettes-gateway-nicotine-addiction-us-teens-says-ucsf-study

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Sex Sells – img21448

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Tobacco companies know as much as anybody that “sex sells,” and they have no qualms with making use of phallic symbols or with objectifying women to sell their products.

Blu, the leading brand of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), placed an advertisement for its product in February 2014. The ad featured the Blu logo front and center on an itsy bitsy bikini bottom of a shapely model. On the online version of the ad you could even zoom in on the picture. You don’t see the woman’s face only her belly button to her legs. Accompanying the ad was the slogan “Slim. Charged. Ready to Go.” The obvious sexual reference of the slogan is hard to miss. Blu also sponsored parties at Playboy’s top party schools that allowed partygoers to meet the Playmates. Playboy itself got into the act by creating its own Playboy e-cigs. Some of the ads for the Playboy e-cigs with the trademarked bunny symbol advertised free condoms with the purchase of the vapor device.

Phantom Smoke is a brand that in their advertising is shameless in its objectification of women. Many of the ads feature skimpily clothed women in subservient positions to men. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly discarded on the rim of the bathtub. In another ad, a woman wearing racy black lingerie is on the floor holding onto an out stretched leg of a man sitting on a couch with an e-cig in his hand. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

Other tobacco ads exploit the “sex sells” market through innuendo and subliminal messaging. Many ads use phallic imagery.

Apart from online and print advertisements that exploit sex to sell the product, online videos are replete with sexual innuendo. An online video for Blu exploits sex to promote a cessation message. An ad for VIP e-cig featured a sultry-looking woman saying: “I want you to get it out. I want to see it. Feel it. Hold it. Put it in my mouth. I want to see how great it tastes.” The online and TV ad, which ran in Britain, attracted 937 complaints about its “overtly sexual” tone.

Targeting Teens – img23757

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Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Smoke Anywhere – img17126

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Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Freedom Lifestyle – img24981

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Freedom marketing is pervasive in electronic cigarette (e-cig) marketing because unlike combustible tobacco products, the electronic devices are not regulated. A freedom based advertising theme that is consistently advertised by e-cig companies is free lifestyle.

Many e-cig brands through images and slogans evoke the emotion of “moments” of freedom and offer the promise of a free lifestyle and the freedom to smoke anywhere, without the worry of smoke-free policies. For instance, an ad for Veppo that features an open stretch of an empty road contains the tagline, “personal vaporizers, the pursuit of true freedom.” An ad for Smoko features a woman in a carefree pose with her head up and arms help open as she enjoys the sea breeze. The ad says, “enjoy your freedom wherever you are.” An ad for Blu has a carefree woman balancing herself on a ledge, which says, “freedom for the taking.”

E-cig brands market freedom based messages both through traditional advertising in magazines and billboards and through direct consumer interactions through social media channels. Blu Cigs frequently posts on its Facebook page with images associated with a free lifestyle and with posts asking followers to comment on their own “freedom stories.” VaporFi has a post that shows the wide open landscape and a man on top of a mountain. The image has nothing to do with the product but is just another example of e-cig brands trying to associate nothing to do with their product, but simply an association of this “free moment” and vaping.

Many e-cig brands aggressively attempting to capture the youth market are using freedom based advertising messages. Scientific studies1 have shown that adolescents desire autonomy and the ability to live life on their own terms. e-cig advertisements with images of free lifestyle and rebellion are just a few of the advertising techniques used by the e-cig companies to court adolescents.

1. Daddis, C. (2011), Desire for Increased Autonomy and Adolescents’ Perceptions of Peer Autonomy: “Everyone Else Can; Why Can’t I?”. Child Development, 82: 1310–1326. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01587.x

Breathe Easier – img17208

by

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19984

by

As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img23965

by

In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Beverages – img22174

by

Soda Pops are a American cultural phenomena with a majority of individuals, including children, drinking a sugary beverage every day. e-cigs and ejuice manufacturers are tapping into people’s love for Soda Pops by creating a number of soft drink flavors.

Popular flavors advertised include Root Beer, Cola, Cherry Cola, Orange Soda, and Hawaiian Punch. Some e-cig manufacturers wanting to borrow from the prestige and reputation of a particular Soda Pop manufacturer have appropriated the brand name albeit with a small change. For instance, Dessert Moon offers a Dr. Pepper Flavor and in advertising the product uses the official brand logo of the soft drink but with its name spread across the top of the image. An ad for Vapage contains images of several popular brands such as Dr. Pepper, Hawaiian Punch, Pepsi and Wrigleys in the foreground with the image of bottles of vape juices in those flavors in the background. Most e-cig brands and companies want their consumers to identify their flavors closely with popular, brand-named soda pops. As Vapor4Life1 says on its website, the idea is for consumers to think that “This vape is so authentic to your favorite soda pop that you'll think you're sipping it from a straw rather than your electronic cigarette.”

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs2. The widespread use of flavored e-cigs by teens have some public health advocates calling it the “Trojan horse” of nicotine addiction.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs in its proposal in the first half of 2014, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. Vapor4Life. Doc Popular. Available at http://www.vapor4life.com/doc-pepper-electronic-cigarette-flavor
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Feminine Glamour – img18703

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There are an enormous variety of female images in electronic cigarette (e-cig) advertising, ranging from pictures of a frumpily dressed older woman, to macho women on powerful machines, to thoroughly sexualized and eroticized depictions. These ads target women who envy the advertised image and aspire to be that person and they also target men who want to be with the women in the advertisements.

As often seen with the female form in ads, the images of women in many of the e-cig ads are of highly idealized body forms. These women are tall and thin with flawless skin and a perfect body that most women envy. In an ad for NutriCigs slim, a skinny woman showcasing her perfectly flat belly rests on the beach. The text of the ad reads, “Eat Less and Satisfy your Cravings.”

In some of these ads the female form is broken down to focus on a specific “perfect” body part. In ads for e-cigs the most common body part focused on are the lips. In many of these ads the lips are clearly defined with brightly colored lipstick that serves to bring into sharper focus the vapor that surrounds the lips. An ad for Hookah Portable focuses on a glittery jewel crusted lip of a woman who is seen vaping. To show the woman as one belonging to elite society, she is seen wearing a white glove. The image in a Vype Vapor ad is of dark red lips and a small stream of vapor. The woman in the ad transmits sensuality and desire. The message is very clear: if you want to be sensuous like that woman, all you have to do is buy the e-cig. It is not only ads but also packaging that focus on a woman’s lips as her most desirable attribute. One of the packs for Alchemy e-cigs has the image of red lips blowing out vapor.

There are also frequent images of female body parts such as the hands, legs or awkwardly attached body parts. An ad for Sky cigarette focuses primarily on the hands of a woman holding the e-cig, her face has been cut-off the ad. The ad seems to imply that what truly matters about the woman is the e-cig in her hand. In a Fin ad, a woman stands on a beach near an old two-seater glider. One of her hands is holding an e-cig while her other arm seems oddly disconnected from the body.

Of course, there are several sexualized and erotic images of women. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly tossed on the rim of the bathtub. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

To appeal to women, many of the e-cigs are produced in pastel colors. For instance, Njoy, Vapor Couture, Bloog, V2Cigs, Lady and Super Cigarette are all available in shades of pink. Vapor Couture offers jewel tipped e-cigs especially made for women. To gain the trust and respect of consumers who have increasingly grown to view the tobacco industry as deceptive and lethal, the e-cig industry has supported charitable institutions and issues that are of importance to women. For instance, SouthBeach Smoke as well as Eversmoke donated funds for breast cancer awareness. However, corporate social responsibility sponsorships from e-cig manufacturers to improve public perception ring hollow especially as they e-cig manufacturers use manipulative techniques and misleading claims to lure consumers.

Targeting Teens – img23758

by

Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Smoke Anywhere – img17127

by

Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Freedom Lifestyle – img24982

by

Freedom marketing is pervasive in electronic cigarette (e-cig) marketing because unlike combustible tobacco products, the electronic devices are not regulated. A freedom based advertising theme that is consistently advertised by e-cig companies is free lifestyle.

Many e-cig brands through images and slogans evoke the emotion of “moments” of freedom and offer the promise of a free lifestyle and the freedom to smoke anywhere, without the worry of smoke-free policies. For instance, an ad for Veppo that features an open stretch of an empty road contains the tagline, “personal vaporizers, the pursuit of true freedom.” An ad for Smoko features a woman in a carefree pose with her head up and arms help open as she enjoys the sea breeze. The ad says, “enjoy your freedom wherever you are.” An ad for Blu has a carefree woman balancing herself on a ledge, which says, “freedom for the taking.”

E-cig brands market freedom based messages both through traditional advertising in magazines and billboards and through direct consumer interactions through social media channels. Blu Cigs frequently posts on its Facebook page with images associated with a free lifestyle and with posts asking followers to comment on their own “freedom stories.” VaporFi has a post that shows the wide open landscape and a man on top of a mountain. The image has nothing to do with the product but is just another example of e-cig brands trying to associate nothing to do with their product, but simply an association of this “free moment” and vaping.

Many e-cig brands aggressively attempting to capture the youth market are using freedom based advertising messages. Scientific studies1 have shown that adolescents desire autonomy and the ability to live life on their own terms. e-cig advertisements with images of free lifestyle and rebellion are just a few of the advertising techniques used by the e-cig companies to court adolescents.

1. Daddis, C. (2011), Desire for Increased Autonomy and Adolescents’ Perceptions of Peer Autonomy: “Everyone Else Can; Why Can’t I?”. Child Development, 82: 1310–1326. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01587.x

Breathe Easier – img17209

by

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19985

by

As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img23966

by

In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Smoke Anywhere – img17128

by

Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Breathe Easier – img17210

by

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19986

by

As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img23967

by

In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.

Targeting Teens – img23760

by

Sponsorship of music and sporting events and the free distribution of cigarette products to lure teenagers to try the product was a technique often used by cigarette companies till tobacco branded sponsorship and the associated distribution of free samples were banned by the Tobacco Control Act. However, in the absence of regulation, electronic cigarette (e-cig) companies are adopting this ploy to target teens. For instance, the top 6 e-cig companies in 2012 to 2013, provided free samples at 348 events, many of which appear geared toward youth.

In order to lure youth to try the product, samples are distributed at popular music concerts, outside stores that are obviously teen-oriented, and even during the Superbowl. Various props are used to make the sampling more appealing. For instance, Vita Cigs offered free samples to passersby outside a store of the retail apparel giant “Forever 21.” The roadshow van closely resembled an ice-cream truck. Logic offered free samples along with free macaroons, and NJOY had a slew of sexy, well-toned, beach boys handing out their samples. The offer of free samples is well promoted through e-cig brands’ social media channels. Photos of the sampling events are posted on the various social media channels.

The deeming regulations proposed by the FDA in early 2014, proposed a ban on the distribution of free samples. However, given that the regulations may not come into effect for at least a year or two, it gives e-cig companies several opportunities to continue to get yet another generation of teens nicotine addicted.

Smoke Anywhere – img17129

by

Freedom is possibly America’s most treasured value. Protected in the “Bill of Rights,” it is a deeply held core belief that to many Americans was a birthright and to some a hard fought victory. Given its hold on the American psyche, it has been used as a powerful marketing tool to hawk products as diverse as airplane tickets for Southwest Airlines, which calls itself “A Symbol of Freedom,” to getting a good night’s sleep with Dacron pillows, which is “America’s Freedom Fabric,” to the freedom to discover the road ahead with Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads,” and the freedom to “Just Do it” with Nike products.

E-cigarette (e-cig) companies have jumped on the freedom bandwagon and promise many kinds of freedom to vapers. A key selling point touted by e-cig companies is that their products can be used in places where smoking of traditional cigarettes is banned, like bars, restaurants, on flights, and in entertainment and sporting venues. An ad for Vapestick shows a woman vaping her e-cig in bed. The slogan of the ad reads, “Looks, Feels, and Tastes like a Real Cigarette That You Can Smoke Anywhere!”. A Cannastick ad shows people enjoying a concert under the caption “The Freedom to Vape Anywhere.” An ad for Cigana has the image of an airplane and is accompanied by the following text, “Smoke without the smoke…. Smoke like no one is watching.” A Vega Vapor ad tells consumers that many “local establishments are vapor friendly.”

The Smoke Anywhere theme is also widely publicized on brand websites. For instance, Blu e-cigs, says on its website, “blu e-cigs® electronic cigarettes are not traditional cigarettes and do not burn tobacco, so they can be smoked in bars, restaurants, offices and other places where normal smoking bans are in effect.” Fin e-cigs on its website says the brand is for individuals “…who want the freedom to smoke in places where traditional cigarettes are not permitted.

While e-cigs offer many freedoms to its users, a freedom that it cannot offer but it often promises is the freedom to smoke anywhere. Despite ads, eg. Blu and Vapestick, that show individuals vape on airplanes, the US Department of Transportation has issued guidelines restricting the use of e-cigs on flights. More restaurants are also coming forward to ban vaping on their premises. For instance, fast food giant Taco Bell has banned vaping in its premises.

Breathe Easier – img17211

by

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

A beneficial effect on breathing and respiration is promised by many e-cigarette (eCig) companies through reassuring brand names and images.

Some companies seek to influence their audience at a subliminal level with reassuring names such as iBreathe, Breathe, Bonnair Lung Aid, Smoke Relief, and the assertive Lung Buddy and O2 Easy and others through reassuring images. Many ads (eg. Blaze, Steamz, Shenzhen Tobacco Company) contain images of healthy lungs (purportedly from vaping eCigs) contrasted with blackened lungs that have been damaged from smoking combustible tobacco products.

Some other ads offer metaphors for healthfulness and freshness. An ad for White Cloud eCigs features the image of two women taking a brisk walk on a grassy hill alongside the caption “Give the Gift of fresh air! Eliminate the tar, ash and unwanted chemical additives from your cigarettes.” The ad brings back memories of an Old Gold ad from 1944 that claimed that their cigarette products were as “fresh” as mountain air.

By presenting the eCig smokers as young, vibrant, athletic, happy, and full of vitality, White Cloud is seeking to claim that its products are better for the individual’s overall health, fresh and safe, and free of toxic chemicals that are harmful to oneself as well as others. But the message is misleading. While White Clouds ad seems to falsely indicate that by vaping its eCigs, an individual can escape all the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, this is not really the case. The absence of combustion in eCigs means the absence of combustible by-products such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other harmful chemicals, but it does not automatically translate into eCigs being a safe product. Research studies have shown that the vapor released from eCigs is not plain “water vapor” but vapor containing varying levels of nicotine, propylene glycol, an anti-freeze, as well as other ultrafine particles. These chemicals could potentially have an adverse effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system.

Since eCigs are a relatively new product, first introduced to the market in 2004, research on the long-term health effects of inhaling nicotine along with trace materials has not yet been fully studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, it is misleading and manipulative on the part of eCig companies to make claims of being eCigs being healthy and safe.

Healthy – img19987

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As the conventional tobacco industry continues to get demonized over predatory marketing practices and concern grows over the ill-effects of smoking, e-cigarette (e-cig)manufacturers have lost no opportunity in selling their products as a “safe” and “healthy” alternative. As Njoy claimed in its commercial “the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one.”

Many e-cig brand names and advertising messages contain reassuring phrases that imply no harm and sometimes even medical benefits. Examples of e-cigs with reassuring brand names include Safe-cigs, Lung Buddy, iBreathe, and E-HealthCigs. In addition ads and packages for e-cigs contains reassuring phrases such as “safe,” “healthier, “cancer cure” “vitamin rich,” “light,” “mild, ” “intelligent,” “no smoker’s cough or phlegm,” and “better stamina.” Ads in this theme run the gamut from the shock inducing Flavor Vapes ad which shows a mother blow e-cig vapor into her baby’s carriage and Ever Smoke’s “Save A Life. Save A Lung. Save a Boob” to the mundane.

Advertising of nicotine based products is coming a full circle as most of the strategies employed by the e-cig industry today has been tried by the combustible cigarette industry until it was regulated. More than 85 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission regulated the combustible tobacco industry and prohibited it from making weight loss claims, 5o years ago, the same agency prohibited it from using the images of doctors and nurses to sell its products, and 5 years ago the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the industry from using descriptors such as mild, light, ultra etc. that subliminally suggested that using such a product reduced the harm for the consumer. In April 2014, seven years after e-cigs were introduced in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration has proposed regulations that will restrict health claims made by the e-cig industry. If the regulations are approved, e-cig companies will no longer be allowed to make health claims unless approved by the regulatory agency to make “direct or indirect claims” of reduced risk.

It may follow that like the tobacco industry, while the letter of the law may be followed, the intent of regulation is often subverted.”

Doctors & Nurses – img23968

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In the first half of the 20th century, tobacco company advertisements often featured doctors hawking cigarettes or cigars. The images were always of an idealized physician – wise, noble, and compassionate. Consumers who saw these ads were made to feel that they would be following the doctor's orders to achieve health or fitness if they were to smoke the cigarettes advertised.

While it may seem hard to believe that such an audacious advertising strategy would be tried in the 21st century, it is precisely what is playing out in the newer and less-well understood electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry. e-cig brands such as Vapestick, Vape Doctor, and Love are resorting to the old and familiar tactic of using the image of the “trusty” doctor to sell their products. In an ad for E-Cigexplorer, an online e-cig store, a surgeon wearing a mask is seeing giving the e-cig a “thumbs-up.” In a more obvious push for the product by the online retailer, two surgeons at an operating theater are seen laughing at a patient who we are to understand is being treated for a tobacco-related illness. The headline for the ad reads, “Still smoking tobacco cigarettes?!” The rest of the text reads, “Haven't you heard of e-cigarettes.” A video for Vapestick has a doctor vaping an e-cig while attending to a pregnant woman. Advanced e-cig uses a more subtle approach to promote the healthfulness of its product. The e-cig packet contains the image of a Caduceus, the most commonly accepted symbol of medicine.

While e-cig companies use the image of the doctor to convince consumers that its products are healthy. Most scientific evidence till date only proves that e-cigs are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes. Nicotine, which is found in most e-cigs is very addictive and the fruit flavored vape juices could hook teenagers and serve as a gateway to traditional cigarettes. At present there is also not much research that has been done to determine the impact of inhaling so much nicotine-laced vapor into the lungs.