ISBA: ‘Don’t stub out e-cig ads’

ISBA 'Don't stub out ecig ads'Client marketing body ISBA has backed calls from health professionals not to outlaw advertising for e-cigarettes, following demands by the World Health Organisation to enforce the same restrictions as tobacco products.
Ironically, today’s Advertising Standards Authority annual report shows that an ad campaign for VIP Electronic Cigarette was the most complained about ad of 2013. The TV spot, which attracted 937 complaints, showed a model seemingly offering to give the viewer oral sex, saying “I want you to get it out, I want to see it, I want to feel it, hold it, put it in my mouth, I want to see how great it tastes.”
But ISBA argues that European law is already hindering the sector as it prevents e-cigarettes from being marketed as healthier alternatives to cigarettes, which restricts the market and reduces the positive impact on public health.
Ian Twinn, ISBA’s director of public affairs, said: “Today’s calls from health professionals provide welcome confirmation of what many of us suspected, that e-cigarettes can legitimately be looked at as a healthier alternative to cigarettes – a viable tobacco substitute. So why shouldn’t they be marketed as such?”
In a letter signed by 53 public health experts, the WHO has been urged not to ‘control and suppress’ e-cigarettes, ahead of the publication of its global guidelines on e-cigarettes. The calls are backed by research showing that as a nicotine replacement product e-cigs are considerably more effective than chewing gum and patches.
Earlier this year, ISBA welcomed a consultation launched by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) into how these electronic devices are advertised and, in particular, how new ad rules could be structured to ensure that in marketing e-cigarettes tobacco products are not promoted indirectly.
In the UK e-cigarettes are caught by rules that are intended to restrict the advertising of tobacco products.
Twinn concluded: “This is an entirely new product that, in all likelihood, can help smokers of harmful, tobacco products to quit. This justifies an entirely new approach to how they are marketed and advertised.
“We need to work towards product-specific rules and let manufacturers promote the benefits of these products and stimulate the market for e-cigs, which would be good for business, good for consumers and, as medical experts agree, good for our health.”

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2 Comments on "ISBA: ‘Don’t stub out e-cig ads’"

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