Following the FDA's announcement earlier this spring that it would regulate the sale - but not marketing - of electronic cigarettes, debate has continued on the safety of using e-cigarettes and the ethics of advertising them.
In case you missed it, today's New York Times delves into the issue and highlights how Big Tobacco is now rolling into the world of e-cigarettes, which writer Matt Richtel calls an "overnight sensation." A subsidiary of Reynolds American plans to begin distributing its Vuse e-cigarette line nationwide on June 23 with a campaign that includes television ads (forbidden for cigarettes) in major markets, and other tobacco companies have similar entries in the works. Questions about the potentially far-reaching effects advertising of e-cigarettes, including promoting smoking tobacco and reaching child audiences, concern public-health advocates and other critics - and a U.S. Senate hearing is planned for Wednesday.
From the article:
Matthew L. Myers, [JD,] president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who is scheduled to testify at the Senate hearing, said the fact that the F.D.A. did not limit marketing allowed tobacco companies to return to the airwaves with ads that make e-cigarettes sexy, rebellious, glamorous — “exactly the same themes we saw work with kids in the U.S. for decades with cigarettes.”
In the absence of marketing regulation, “they will set the agenda,” Mr. Myers said of the tobacco companies. “They will drive the evolution of the product in a way that serves their interests and not public health, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”
Robert Jackler, MD, chair of otolaryngology at Stanford Medicine, is an expert on tobacco marketing who studies it through his center, the Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising. Like Myers, he has vocalized his concerns about e-cigarettes and tobacco companies’ aggressive marketing tactics - especially those targeted toward teens - and you can hear more about his views and research in this recent podcast.
Previously: E-cigarettes and the FDA: A conversation with a tobacco-marketing researcher, E-Cigarettes: The explosion of vaping is about to be regulated, Stanford chair of otolaryngology discusses federal court’s ruling on graphic cigarette labels and What’s being done about the way tobacco companies market and manufacture products
Photo by Li Tsin Soon
