In the latest assault by politicians and regulators across the nation on the accelerating uptake of e-cigarettes, a bunch of Congressional liberals have joined forces to point out marketing tactics that they believe (or so they say) target young people. The scary title of this new investigation, Gateway to Addiction? (subtitled A survey of popular electronic cigarette manufacturers and target marketing to youth) reveals the not-so-surprising conclusion: The e-cigarette industry is devoting its vast resources towards addicting our youth to nicotine in the form of e-cigarettes!.
They are carrying out this nefarious agenda through the following subtle and overt methods: they advertise their products using attractive, sometimes scantily-clad models wearing bikinis, well-known to appeal to teenage boys; they market and advertise their products in venues known to be frequented by young folks: music concerts and festivals, auto-racing events, and the like; they sometimes are available in flavors known to be attractive to kids. And perhaps the most reprehensible factor their marketing/advertising budgets have more than doubled between the years 2012 and 2013!
Rep. Henry Waxman, longtime scourge of the tobacco industry (it was his committee before whom the cigarette company CEOs swore that nicotine was not addictive, among other lies, in 1994), went so far as to remind the public of these and other dastardly deeds of Big Tobacco last century: We fought for decades to set strict rules for marketing of traditional cigarettes, he was quoted as saying by the N.Y.Times Sabrina Tavernise.
Mr. Waxman s statement goes quite a ways towards illustrating the problems those of us in public health communication have to deal with in trying to send the science-based message out on e-cigarettes. He has continually conflated electronic cigarettes which have harmed no one and have been chemically shown to be unlikely to harm anyone with the traditional, toxic, carcinogenic cigarettes, the real killers. He and his anti-harm reduction co-conspirators rarely fail to bring up the fraudulent manipulations of the cigarette merchants of yore, and to elucidate for us over and over again how dangerous cigarettes are when they carry on about e-cigs, hoping to and often succeeding in confusing their listeners among the public and the media. Yet, none of the alleged depredations of the e-cigarette industry, which does not exist as a coherent force, are in any way outrageous nor illegal, as any marketer of a novel, innovative and much-needed product would be doing exactly the same things to attract customers and to compete with other companies in the same field. These blowhards need to step back and let desperate smokers get the true information about e-cigs without impeding their access to a potentially lifesaving product.