Collection: Doctors & Nurses

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.