http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/e-cig-ads-target-kids-nyc-controller-letter-ftc-article-1.2474991
E-cig makers have adopted many of the same tactics long abandoned for regular cigarettes to entice children.
City Controller Scott Stringer is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate electronic cigarette marketing to kids.
E-cig makers have adopted many of the same tactics long abandoned for regular cigarettes to entice children — using cartoons in ads, promoting sweet flavors, and sponsoring concerts and sports events — Stringer said in testimony to the FTC.
“The same companies that peddled ‘Joe Camel’ and similar, kid-friendly images to an earlier generation are back with new ad strategies that appear to target e-cigarettes just as explicitly toward children and teens, with little or no regard for any potential health impacts,” he wrote.
E-cig companies are using cartoons in their ads, something tobacco companies had to do away with because they target kids.
It’s illegal in most of the country to sell e-cigarettes to kids under 18. In New York City, the age for both regular smokes and the electronic vapor devices is 21.
But e-cigarette use, also called “vaping,” has been spiking among high school students, and a study by an anti-smoking group this year found more than 80% of American youth are exposed to e-cigarette marketing.
Stringer said he’s worried city pension funds, which have investments in e-cigarette companies, could be at risk if the firms are hit with massive lawsuits like traditional tobacco companies have been.
The tobacco industry is on the hook for $200 billion from a 1998 settlement with state attorneys general over marketing to minors.
Since then, they’ve been banned from using cartoons in ads, using billboards and most other outdoor advertising, advertising on transit, giving out swag with company logos, sponsoring events with young audiences and other tactics attractive to kids.
The fruity flavors of e-cig cartridges are the focus of this ad, which could be attractive to kids.
“Instead of adopting these tools to the rise of e-cigarettes, the industry appears to have harkened back to an old playbook — one that explicitly and implicitly targets minors as a source of potential revenue,” Stringer wrote.
Little is known about the health effects of e-cigarettes, which many users pick up as a less dangerous alternative to smoking, but the nicotine they contain is widely considered harmful to adolescent brain development.
The FTC has proposed a broad study on e-cigarettes, and is soliciting testimony on what they should zero in on. Stringer urged the group to probe whether the e-cigarette campaigns are in strict compliance with federal truth in advertising laws.
“Our operating companies do not market any tobacco products to kids and that includes e-cigarettes,” said Jane Seccombe, spokeswoman for Reynolds America, the parent company for Vuse e-cigarettes.