Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland Puts Restrictions On E-Cigarette Ads
The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) has implemented new standards which adds regulations to how e-cigarettes can be advertised and marketed. The new standards make it clear that e-cigarette packaging and advertising cannot contain health claims unless authorized to do so.
E-cigarette makers cannot glamorize their products through the use of health professionals or celebrity endorsements, cannot encourage non-smokers to use e-cigarettes, cannot design marketing and advertising to appeal to children under 18, and cannot use any branding that may be associated with a tobacco brand.
The Irish Cancer Society was pleased with the new rules. Eoin Bradley from the Irish Cancer Society said the marketing of e-cigarettes had been “very much along the same line as the old tobacco industry”.
The Irish Cancer Society’s concern is:
“The last thing we want to see is for e-cigarettes to mock up or pretend to be something which looks very similar to tobacco.”
It does not want to see the e-cigarette industry use the hugely successful branding and marketing for tobacco industry to grow itself into an uncontrollable monster. Eoin Bradley doesn’t want the e-cigarette industry to undermine the message that quitting tobacco is vitality important for minimizing cancer risk and for supporting good health.
Irish Cancer Society indicated that Irish e-cigarette smokers rose from 134,000 in July 2014 to 210,000 in March 2015. This was an unsettling rise in the number of e-cigarette smokers and now maybe the new regulations will slow that rise in number.
Tags: anti-cancer, cancer awareness
