Have you seen an ad for “vaping” yet? The new form of cigarette smoking, “vaping,” is the use of e-cigarettes, and the sellers of these electronic cigarettes have become increasingly willing to use multiple avenues and platforms to get their products in front of possible buyers. They’re getting pushback from public health advocates who are particularly concerned that the advertisements will encourage young people to begin vaping.
The main issue that arises amongst this topic is the question, Should there be regulations on ads for e-cigarettes or do you think, as a legal product, ads for them are considered OK?
Yes, I have seen an ad for vaping, and I guess you could say that I lie in the middle. The ad was for a new up and coming e-cigarette store in Buffalo, Juicy Vapor. The jingle was catchy, but it did state how using e-cigarette’s were “cool,” a new norm, and on the rise. What do kids like? The newest, and “coolest” products that are on the rise are what they rave about. If you look at it in the context of the commercial, all it does is state who they are, where they are located, and what they have to offer. They don’t flat out say, “try this product.” If you even visit their website and on the commercial itself it boldly states that you must be 18 years or older to purchase anything from Juicy Vapors.
Again, I support my previous opinion that I am for and against the use of e-cigarettes. It all depends if they’re in the right hands.
Overall, I hate smoking and vaping in general. I have had two grandmothers die from cancer due to smoking and when I see people using cigarettes, electronic or not, it makes me sick because slowly day-by-day they are throwing their lives away.
I guess my opinion is this: people are already or have been smoking for a decent amount of time if they are looking into vaping. I am all for it if vaping is used as a safe way to smoke and not a way for teens to get started. But if you have a choice to start, don’t. The way that vaping looks in advertisements isn’t how it looks in real life. It’s a waste of your time, life, and money.
Stan Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, does not have a delightful way of describing the advertisements for e-cigarettes.
“The advertising just hit a new high in terms of chutzpah,” said Glantz in a NPR article. “If the Obama administration were serious about protecting the public on public health, they would immediately move to clamp down on the way e-cigarettes are being advertised and apply the same rules that apply to cigarette advertising.”
Glantz spoke out after seeing an ad for an e-cigarette provider by the name of “blu e-cigs,” which was published in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. It featured a very skinny, I am guessing attractive woman (because the ad goes from her belly button piercing down) who was wearing a bikini bottom with the blu e-cig logo imprinted on them.
While Glantz believes bans on sports censorship, cartoon characters, flavors and TV advertising need to be implemented on the topic of advertising e-cigarettes, Vince Wilmore, member of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, states simply that an ad like the one for blu e-cigs will appeal to teenage boys. What do teenage boys like? Attractive girls.
Wilmore believes that e-cigarette advertisements are just glorifying another way to smoke cigarettes, which may be healthier, but it’s still threatening the progress that has been made over the years to put a halt on the percentage of smokers.
“Kids may view them as something they can use that’s not going to harm their health without realizing that they contain very addictive nicotine,” Wilmore says. “For kids, these products could serve as a gateway to nicotine addiction and even to regular cigarette smoking.”
In a Fox News article, Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News medical correspondent and Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, advocates why e-cigarettes are equally good and bad. He stated how some years ago he learned a technique to get people to quit smoking and to start vaping.
E-cigarettes, according to Siegel, allow a cigarette addict to replicate the image and the nicotine, but lose the tar and other cigarette toxins that cause deadly diseases such as cancer and emphysema.
However, Siegel does agree with the like of Wilmore, as he sees e-cigarette usage and advertising playing a role in teenager’s lives.
“According to the Centers of Disease Control,” said Siegel. “E-cigarette use among high school students is now up to 10 percent, double from a year ago, with 80 percent also smoking tobacco.”
Astounding. Isn’t it? The product that was created to aid in helping adults quit smoking has created another path to get youngsters to start.
Siegel believes that vaping is currently a great, effective way to help people quit smoking, but there are still flaws. He states that the FDA is planning on increasing regulations on e-cigarettes, which will give a doctor a definite role in prescribing e-cigarette usage.
Matt Maiorca, a Junior Management major at St. Bonaventure University, believes that the only thing that’s bad about e-cigarettes is that the side effects aren’t stated in the advertisements.
“Word on the street is that E-cigarettes bring us a safer alternative to smoking,” says Maiorca. “It lures in teenagers on that fact alone. Cigarette smoking is very dangerous as they have so many toxins, hence why I could see why current smokers would take the e-cig route to quit, and I can see why kids would want to try it. It’s perceived as a safe way to smoke.”
E-cigarettes hold a liquid that is normally flavored, which through vaping, produces vapor. What do kids like? Flavors and sweets. Defending this topic keeps getting tougher and tougher.
Gerry Wasilewski, a student at SUNY Buffalo State, started vaping about a year ago without ever touching a cigarette in his life.
“It looked cool, I guess. I saw all these stores popping up around town and I wanted to try it. It seemed like a harmless way of smoking and the endless flavors presented what seemed like a good idea,” said Wasilewski. “Now I am addicted. I spent probably $75 dollars on my e-cig and it never leaves my side. I bring it to the gym, work, restaurants and the mall. It goes everywhere with me. I buy juices with a lower nicotine concentration but it is still not healthy for me. I can totally see how these advertisements are luring teenagers in. I just turned 20 and it got me.”
My own friends see the commercials as an ad saying that it is “cool to vape.” These companies are luring over 50 percent of America into unhealthy practices by making something look cool that is only harmful on your body.
Jonathan Zimmerman, a contributor to The Christian Science Monitor, states, “The cigarette is the entrance ticket to the hall of adult society.” Zimmerman, thanks to a new study, believes that teens who use or have used e-cigarettes are most likely to acquire an addiction to actual cigarettes down the road.
The main issue seems to be advertising. If the US government put a halt to cigarette advertisements in the late 1900’s, why is it all of a sudden okay to market e-cigarettes? It just doesn’t make any sense.
To lure a young man or woman to start smoking gave them a sense of adulthood. Yes, “e-cigs” are way safer than smoking a cigarette filled with tar, and actual tobacco, but the public doesn’t know really what is inside these so called e-cigs.
According to Sarah Milov, another contributor to The Christian Science Monitor, the time to regulate e-cigarettes is now.
“If e-cigarettes can be cessation (stopping) devices, then they should be regulated like the patch or nicotine gum,” said Milov. “Now, e-cigarettes are seen as ‘activation devices,’ particualry for young people… If that is the case, there should be common sense restrictions on flavor additives or advertising.”
Milov seems to have the same opinion as many others that I have brought up in this paper. E-cigarettes are becoming a gateway that is getting some cigarette smokers to slowly quit, but it is also luring in innocent children that will soon be addicted.
In the Forbes article E-Cigarettes Are Bad Because They Look Like Cigarettes; E-Hookahs Are Worse Because They Don’t, which was written by Jacob Sullum, he references an LA Times article which stated “e-cigarettes make smoking look socially acceptable” which goes against the half a century of tobacco control in the United States.
“The recent increase to vaping amongst teenagers has been accompanied by a continued decline in smoking, and in a 2013 survey of 1,300 college students, only one respondent reported vaping before he started smoking. It didn’t prove to be a gateway to anything,” said Sullum. “ To sum it all up, using an e-cigarette might lead to smoking, but we cant find true examples of that. Fruity flavors show how these products are aimed at children—or maybe at young women, middle-aged actresses, or old Arab men. But the point is, they are aimed at somebody, and the companies selling them clearly are trying to make them appealing, which cannot be tolerated.”
Way to make a statement, huh? Sullum clearly states it doesn’t matter what these products are or who they are aimed at. It shouldn’t be publicized or advertised.
I guess when looking over all the research, a lot of people would put vaping and cigarette smoking in the same category; that category being harmful to your health and flat out stupid. Yes, vaping does propose a way to get out of being a cigarette addict, which in my opinion is way better than being a cigarette addict, but overall, both take time to get un-hooked. The patch or gum are probably two of the safer and easiest ways to get away from cigarettes, but one thing is for sure: vaping is a way to get away from cigarette smoking, not a way to start.
In conclusion, to answer the question I started with, I believe there should be regulations to advertising e-cigarettes. Through the research that I have provided, most, if not all, writers and reporters stated that e-cigarette advertising is no different than tobacco advertising. Cigarette advertising was banned in 1971 and after all the research and investigation, I truly understand why. Even though e-cigarettes and the idea of “vaping” just came about, the advertising of these products and ideas need to be put to a halt.
Sell e-cigarettes all you want. Don’t publicize the usage of the products as “cool” or easy with a jingle that wont get out of your head during a daytime broadcast of a baseball game or popular television show which millions of kids are tuned into. Yes, it is a good idea to help current smokers that want to quit. It is not a good idea to help aid teenagers minds to say “that is real cool, let’s start vaping.”
Bibliography
- Elliot, Debbie. “E-Cigarette Critics Worry New Ads Will Make ‘Vaping’ Cool For Kids.” org. 3 Mar. 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. <http://www.npr.org/2014/03/03/284006424/e-cigarette-critics-worry-new-ads-will-make-vaping-cool-for-kids>.
- Siegel, Marc. “E-cigarettes: a doctor’s view of the good, the bad and the ugly.” com. 28 Mar. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/03/28/e-cigarettes-doctor-view-good-bad-and-ugly/>.
- Maiorca, Matt. Interview in person on April 1, 2014
- Wasilewski, Gerry. Over the phone interview on April 1, 2014
- Milov, Sarah. “The time to regulate e-cigarettes is now.” The Christian Science Monitor. 9 Jan. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. <http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2014/0109/The-time-to-regulate-e-cigarettes-is-now>.
- Zimmerman, Jonathan. “Are e-cigarette marketers ensnaring the next generation of teen smokers?.” The Christian Science Monitor. 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. <http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2014/0313/Are-e-cigarette-marketers-ensnaring-the-next-generation-of-teen-smokers>.
- Sullum, Jacob. “E-Cigarettes Are Bad Because They Look Like Cigarettes; E-Hookahs Are Worse Because They Don’t.” com. 5 Mar. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/03/05/e-cigarettes-are-bad-because-they-look-like-cigarettes-e-hookahs-are-worse-because-they-dont>.
Michael Loffredo 