Companies spend huge sums on TV ads...

Companies spend huge sums on TV ads, sponsorships to boost e-cigarette sales

NEW YORK: Electronic cigarettes may be a creation of the early 21st century, but critics of the devices say manufacturers are increasingly borrowing marketing tactics that are more reminiscent of the heady days of tobacco in the mid-1900s.

With US smokers buying e-cigarettes at a record pace — annual sales are expected to reach $1.7 billion by year's end — e-cigarette makers are opening their wallets wide, spending growing sums on TV commercials with celebrities, catchy slogans and sports sponsorships.

Those tactics can no longer be used to sell tobacco cigarettes, but are readily available to the ecigarette industry because it is not covered by the laws or regulations that affect the tobacco cigarette industry. The e-cigarette industry is also spending lavishly on marketing methods that are also still available to their tobacco brethren, including promotions, events, sample giveaways and print ads.

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E-cigarette advertising could be coming to...

E-cigarette advertising could be coming to television

By Tom De Poto/The Star-Ledger 
on August 27, 2013 at 7:54 AM, updated August 27, 2013 at 7:55 AM

It’s been 52 years since Fred Flintstone lit a Winston cigarette on television, and about 43 years since tobacco advertising was banned from TV altogether. But Reynolds American, the nation’s second largest tobacco company, plans to return to the airwaves with a 60-second televised commercial next month.

The ad won’t feature any of the Flintstones, or Joe Camel or any other cartoon character.
It won’t even feature tobacco. The ad will be for Vuse, the company’s entry into the electronic cigarette market.

R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, a subsidiary of Reynolds American, has been selling its e-cigarette in Colorado on a trial basis before a national rollout.
The ad will feature lab technicians in white coats, according to Bloomberg.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered plastic or metal tubes containing a liquid nicotine solution that when heated creates vapors a “smoker” can inhale. Users – who prefer to be called vapers -- can get their nicotine without the other harmful chemicals in tobacco filled cigarettes.

Tobacco advertising on television was banned by the federal government in 1971 because of its harmful effects on smokers. But e-cigarettes are not currently regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which opens the playing field for the new product.

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