As an avid smoker myself, I was particularly interested in
this blog written by Colin Daileda on Mashable in
regards to e-cigarettes and their marketing campaigns that allegedly causes a
negative impact on children and teens.
It states that a gluttony of these e-cigarette companies have
been forced to defend their marketing campaigns due to increased pressure in
regards to the impact of e-cigarette advertising that it has on children and
teens. Now for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last
couple of years, these e-cigarettes are basically “electronic cigarettes” that
are battery powered vaporizers which stimulates tobacco smoking by producing an
aerosol that resembles smoke.
It generally uses a heating element known as an atomizer,
that vaporizes a liquid solution know as e-liquid. Sounds fair enough to me,
and as an owner of one of these bad boys, I can personally tell you that I smoke
these beauties like a chimney. But I am not a pre-puberty teen, and there is a
moral high ground when it comes to ethnics in regarding to advertising to
children.
Latest stats
have shown that adolescent exposure to e-cigarette TV ads has gone through the
roof and the usage of e-cigarettes have doubled amongst high school students in
the US from 2011 to 2012.
But how much of this does it actually correlate with
marketing? There is absolutely no argument that kids will smoke, just to be
cool, or at least seem to be, and seeing ads on TV definitely encourages them
to follow down the dark alleyways of smoking. But putting aside the obvious
health risks that come hand in hand with smoking, what kind of message are
marketers sending out to kids when planning these campaigns?
Jay Rockefeller, who chairs the Sentate Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation in the states was quoted on saying that
“these products are relatively new, and their long term health effects are unknown
at this point” Ah well then, rest assured. From a personal standpoint, I sleep
well at night knowing that such advertising is banned here in Australia, away
from the innocent eyes of our children.
Jason Healy, president of Blu, who are market leaders in the
e-cigarette industry according to the blog- “did not address concerns over ad
imagery, but rather shifted the conversation to what he said are the benefits
that e-cigarettes have for adults”. As far i’m concered, there is absolutely
nothing wrong with marketing these e-cigarettes to adults, because adults are
capable of making rational decisions (well at least most of us) and that
consumers should be freedom to make these conscious decisions upon purchasing a
product.
But the ethics of it all is that whether or not these children and
teens should be allowed to be exposed to this type of advertising, in my
opinion, they shouldn’t. In this this day and age, where does one draw the line
between affecting the health of children and making a buck?
References
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