E-cigarette posts banned by Instagram ad watchdog

Four vaping firms have been banned from promoting their e-cigarette products on public Instagram pages. In the posts, models and celebrities were seen holding electronic cigarettes. The advertising of e-cigarettes is banned on social media, and health campaigners are regarding the ruling as a “huge step forward”. In this Pacific Prime UK article, we’ll take a closer look at the e-cigarette post ban.

Why vaping posts are now banned from social media

Four vaping companies, including British American Tobacco (BAT), Ama Vape, Attitude Vapes, and Global Vaping Group, were accused of promoting electronic cigarettes that contain nicotine. Similarly, their social media posts featured models who were believed to be under the age of 25, which is prohibited under the advertising code.

When asked to make a statement about the incident, British American Tobacco stated its online communications “aimed to impart factual information regarding products but stopped short of direct or indirect promotion.”

Is it legal to advertise cigarettes?

The Vype Instagram account under scrutiny was not accessible to users under the age of 18 and clearly indicated that its Vype electronic cigarettes contained nicotine. What’s more, it “used these platforms to interact with users when they ask questions or request information to communicate factual information about Vype that adults vapers and smokers” were after.

However, Action on Smoking Health (ASH) Chief Executive Deborah Arnott said, “The law has always been clear that any advertising of e-cigarettes is not permitted. BAT’s defence that all they were doing was providing ‘information’ on social media not promoting their products has been blown out of the water.

“The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) ruling leaves no doubt that BAT’s social media tactics for Vype were both irresponsible and unlawful and must never be repeated.”

According to the ASA ruling, the posts are not allowed to appear again in its present form. All four companies were told posts promoting electronic cigarettes containing nicotine “should not be made from Instagram in future” unless measures were taken to ensure they could not be accessed by under-18s. Likewise, the people featured in the posts have to be at least 25 years old.

Global Vaping Group accepted its promotional posts had been “beyond purely being factual” and also confessed that the age of the woman seen vaping in the post could not be verified. Ama Vape said it had deleted its post as well as reviewed its other content on social media.

Can cigarette companies advertise online?

A spokesperson from Instagram said the platform was updating its rule to disclose that the app will no longer permit paid promotions of vapes and other tobacco products.

Parent company Facebook said, “We do not allow adverts that promote the sale or use of tobacco or electronic cigarettes. Earlier this year we updated our policy to restrict organic content that depicts the sale or purchase of tobacco products to over 18s. We are currently updating our brand content policies to no longer allow paid promotions of these products too.”

Earlier this year, Tobacco-Free Kids and over 125 organisations from across the globe called on social media companies, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, to ban all influencer marketing of e-cigarettes and tobacco on their platforms.

According to eMarketer, Instagram has over 20 million monthly users in the UK alone, with almost 7 million of them being between the ages of 12 and 24. 25 to 34-year-olds make up another 6 million. The ASA ruling points out the issue of younger people using e-cigarettes, as well as the health issues surrounding vaping.

Health effects of smoking e-cigarettes

Since vaping is a relatively new method of smoking, the long-term health consequences are not yet known. With that said, there have been over 2,300 cases of lung injuries related to vaping in the US, 47 of which resulted in death. In late 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the sale of many flavoured e-cigarettes in a large number of petrol stations and convenience stores throughout the US in an attempt to control the dramatic increase in vaping among teens.

Moving forward

University of Bath’s Director of the Tobacco Control Research Group Professor Anna Gilmore said, “This is a major step forward in stopping the tobacco industry from promoting its new addictive products to children and teenagers. But given that cigarette sales are falling and tobacco companies are desperate to recruit young people into using these new products, ongoing vigilance is essential.”

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