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Electronic cigarette marketers manipulate antitobacco advertisements to promote vaping
  1. Divya Ramamurthi,
  2. Raj P Fadadu,
  3. Robert K Jackler
  1. Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising, Department of Otolaryngology -Head & Neck Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Professor Robert K Jackler, Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, 801 Welch Road, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; jackler{at}stanford.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2015-052661

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    Introduction

    A device commonly used by public health advocates is the alteration of cigarette advertisements to convey an antismoking message.1 ,2 Well-known examples include ‘Joe Chemo’ for Joe Camel and ‘Fool’ for Kool.3 Our group has assembled an online collection of some 162 cigarette advertising ‘knock offs’ (unauthorised modifications) encompassing 35 brands created by enterprising antitobacco advocates.4

    Recently, a new genre of adapted advertisements has appeared in which the electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) industry or its supporters have modified antismoking advertisements for the purposes of promoting vaping. These advertisements, which were originally intended to communicate the adverse health consequences of smoking, were altered to promote the supposed healthfulness of e-cigarettes. We have identified 12 educational advertisements that were altered either by e-cigarette brands or vaping advocacy groups.

    Australian Government campaign: Stop Smoking Start Repairing

    Four advertisements in our sample modify the Australian Government's “Stop Smoking Start Repairing” advertisements to read “Stop Smoking Start Vaping” (figure 1). The original antismoking campaign was intended to raise awareness of the health benefits of quitting traditional cigarettes, a promotional tactic also widely used by e-cigarette brands.5 While we could not identify the original maker of these altered advertisements, variations of them pervade the …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors RPF identified the advertisements and proposed the study. Data analysis and manuscript preparation were completed by DR and RKJ.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.