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CONTROVERSIAL ‘VAPING’ COMMERCIALS showing people puffing on e-cigarettes are not banned under Irish advertising laws, leaving the door open for suppliers to follow the lead of their UK counterparts.
Last night a racy commercial was broadcast on UK TV featuring a woman exhaling vapour from an e-cigarette – the first time smoking had been shown in an ad for decades.
Today a spokeswoman for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) told TheJournal.ie there were no regulations specifically banning on-air e-cig advertising here.
“There will be a public consultation into the BAI commercial communications code in the new year, and this may be raised at that point,” she said.
Under the BAI’s rules, all cigarette and tobacco advertising is illegal – but the regulations do not mention e-cigarette smoking, also known as “vaping”.
Another section deals with “smoking aids”, although this only goes as far as stating that any products claiming to help people quit smoking also needed to make it clear they only worked with “the positive application of the consumer’s willpower”.
The UK’s advertising regulator relaxed its rules last month to allow the commercial to air, although a series of earlier ads from the e-cig company, VIP, were still barred for being too “overly sexual”.
Anti-tobacco advocates have called for all ads showing smoking to be outlawed for fear they will glamourise the practice and entice more young people to take up cigarettes.
Meanwhile, VIP, which also sells its products through a string of outlets in Ireland, has been busy cashing in on the publicity.
The company put out a media release yesterday in which its co-founder hailed “the first time in almost 50 years that TV audiences see someone exhale what appears to be cigarette smoke on an advert”.
Irish vaping ads should be opposed
Vaping has already been banned in Ireland’s biggest shopping centre outside designated smoking areas and the HSE has barred e-cigarettes from all its smoke-free campuses.
Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor said allowing e-cigarette ads to go to air would be a backwards step in the anti-tobacco fight as it would help normalise smoking again.
“As is often the case, if something happens in the UK, it won’t be too long arriving in Ireland,” she said.
I feel strongly that we need to oppose this type of advertising in Ireland as it normalises the act of smoking and could prove extremely damaging.”
Mitchell O’Connor said she didn’t believe e-cigarettes could be advertised “in a harmless way” and society couldn’t be allowed to “regress” to the point where images of glamorous people smoking meant more young people thought it was cool.
TV ads could reduce e-cig scaremongering
But Steve Barrett from Dublin’s Purplebox Vapours told TheJournal.ie that seeing e-cigarette ads on Irish TV would be a welcome move to reduce the “scaremongering” that surrounded vaping at the moment.
purplebox vapours / Twitter#VIPCig good to see vaping advertised but ad could focus more on the benefits.Vaping is saving milions of lives. pic.twitter.com/C7PU7V7AV7
— purplebox vapours (@purpleboxvape) November 11, 2014
He said while he didn’t agree with smoking being glamorised in commercials, advertising could be used to spread the word about the benefits of e-cigarettes.
“I don’t feel that you can control what people do as a nanny state, you have to let people make an informed decision – even if things are potentially bad for you,” he said.
If that was the case, there would be an argument for McDonald’s not being able to advertise.
“So if e-cigarettes are saving millions of lives, they have benefits, there are no health risks as such … it just becomes an adult decision.”
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Stop using the word smoke in conjunction with e-cigarettes. There is no smoke involved. E-cigarettes produce vapour, not smoke.
These companies are just rushing to get some advertising out There before it is banned.
Ugh. Please don’t try to make vaping “sexy”. Vaping is not sexy. What a cringe inducing ad >.<
Shouldn’t be advertised. It’s just a trick to get more hooked on nicotine, which in turn will eventually lead to more smoking. The opposite of what the purpose of vaping should be. They’re only a slightly better alternative to smoking, but they’re still not good.
What evidence are you basing the statement “they’re only a slightly better alternative to smoking”? There is very little research into the long term effects of vaping, and the preliminary data seems to show that are significantly less damaging than smoking tobacco.
One problem with ‘vaping’ is the release of steam containing nicotine and other substances which can and does reach the lungs of nearby people, ie passive smokers. This has been shown scientifically. If e-cigarettes become widely acceptable and remain deregulated and uncontrolled we will never truly know their long-term effects. I don’t think anyone can argue that e-cigarettes are ‘better’ than smoking for smokers and people who want to quit but what about the rest of us?
“One problem with ‘vaping’ is the release of steam containing nicotine and other substances which can and does reach the lungs of nearby people,”
Rubbish… and conclusively demonstrated not to do so.
“This has been shown scientifically. ”
Really? Where?
Because the largest study was at drexel university in 2012 and they demonstrated conclusively that no nicotine whatsoever enters the bloodstream of others… literally none… and the resolution on their analysis is one part per billion. To put that in context the safe daily intake of arsenic is several thousand times higher!
“If e-cigarettes become widely acceptable and remain deregulated and uncontrolled we will never truly know their long-term effects.”
That science has been done already… making something illegal or regulating it out of existence has no effect whatsoever on researching it other than making the research itself illegal. For that reason we don’t know the long term effects of cannabis use…it was prohibited BEFORE the research was done. Finally when permission was given it was discovered it was perfectly safe…. which governments didn’t like the look of and fired the scientists that discovered it.
Ecigarettes just like ALL products are regulated. Only black market products are unregulated. What you mean is they are not regulated as weapons, or medicines or aircraft… well that’s because they don’t function as any of those… no ecigarette can get medical authorization…it needs to demonstrate a medical function first… they also can’t fly nor can you kill anyone with one. But they are regulated…as consumer products… just like bread, milk and mobile phones.
” I don’t think anyone can argue that e-cigarettes are ‘better’ than smoking for smokers and people who want to quit but what about the rest of us?”
After ten years of scientific investigation yes, yes they can. Not that’s its even needed since ‘including the nicotine’ which you yourself consume daily… all of the other constituents of eliquid produced by vaporisers you subject yourself to on a daily basis and have done all of your life… the ingredients in eliquid are in all foods and have been for almost 80 years!
Plus there ar ea total of 100 million vapers worldwide now and hospital admissions fro ecigarette indused illnesses is ZERO in ten years… thats pretty much case closed.
Where in the name of Jesus are you getting this information?
Ah sex sells. That old nugget. God can they not come up with something original.
To add I did enjoy the commercial though.!
I did too, infact I would have commented earlier but each time I watch the ad I had to go offline for a few minutes….
Anything that riles up the do gooders and nanny staters, can only be a good thing.
I started vaping a year ago, I rarely smoke nowadays the health, and financial benefits are tangible. Recently the W.H.O. released a report urging governments to ban E cigs as in their view they represented a significant health risk, meanwhile in Africa a little disease called Ebola went completely unnoticed by their radar.
Um, guys, that’s a bit much. I don’t know who would be more embarassed watching it, young teens with their parents in the room or vice versa.
Chances are that any “vaper” probably smoked before turning to the end cigs. So I doubt their lungs look as healthy as that.
The lungs of a smoker look exactly the same as the lungs of a non-smoker (unless one or the other is diseased). The “smokers black lungs” thing is a myth.
No I’m not saying that smoking is a healthy habit to have, just that it does NOT have the effects that the scary pictures on the packs would have you believe.
This is just one link where this is discussed…. there are lots more if you care to look for them.
http://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/the-black-lung-lie/
There is a complete and intentional misrepresentation of the facts pertaining to vaping.
Firstly nicotine is a very powerful and addictive drug no matter what form you take it. It has significant effects on the nervous system (which is why people take it) and blood vessels so it will still cause blood vessel and heart problems.
There is no common standard for the ingredients so there are lots of other substances present depending on manufacturer and we don’t know what they are.
All of the cigarette manufacturers are moving into this area and the nicotine in Vaps is provided by the tobacco companies since developed world consumption is gradually falling.
Speaking personally I have seen several teenage children using these Vaps because of the cool image being portrayed, lack of legislation and perception that they are harmless. I fear this is generating a new breed of nicotine addicts for the future.
Nicotine addiction is real and very very harmful to health, whether delivered in a cigarette or a Vap.
Well said, I didn’t mention the glamourisation of smoking in my post but you hit the nail on the head.
No regulation in design or use. Traditional tobacco companies (their lobby groups being one of the biggest and best funded worldwide) have almost complete ownership of these products. Never mind the sex sells adds, that’s always being the sales pitch, nicotine is the addictive product that they want to sell.
I’m always amazed at the supposedly ”brave” Irish politicos going after targets like cig companies or the church…that’s not brave and bold lads those actors are basically powerless now the arguments against them have been won.
Ban them? Ok…sure…but if you wanna have a real impact on the public health, especially that of children then ban marketing of confectionery products (ads, sponsorship of school events) that will have a much bigger effect. Apart from the biggest factor of their product being highly addictive, their next biggest driving factor is their marketing and without that their sales would drop significantly. How about making a dent in childhood obesity instead of dancing on something you’ve already won the public argument on?
Our first brave politician will be the one who genuinely tries to take on the cartels in Irish industries. How is it all solicitors & barristers cost similar amounts (other than the big boys) in a supposedly perfectly competitive industry? Same with GPs. Pubs all charge relatively similar prices despite the almost complete lack of chains and huge competition. Price fixing is collusion and collusive companies are cartels. Seems to just be accepted in Ireland though.
In the definition of a perfectly competitive market it is proven that market participants are price takers, so your assertion that “supposedly perfectly competitive” markets should somehow have varying prices is ridiculous.
I’m ragin I bought into that now. Pure sshite* Turned me back onto the fags
So it’s ok to use nicotine patches , nicotine goes into the bloodstream , nicotine spray , nicotine sprayed into your mouth and nicotine chewing gum but it’s not ok to inhale the nicotine ?? They are all aids to help you get off cigarettes . e cigs work and they should be seen as just that .
Oh dear god… the cringe.
I surprised they let her on the telly with those split ends
It would be hypocritical to advertise any addictive substance on the tv in 2014! Imagine a stylised ad for methadone light, 20 pack.
Um, alcohol ads? They’re not exactly a rarity.
Vaping does not lead to smoking, more like the other way around if anything.. see this article which is a good well written article about electronic cigarette safety http://vaporcigarettes.co.nz/are-ecigs-safe/. Thanks for the info btw. very interesting!
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