Obstacles You May Experience With Your Vape Advertisement And Marketing Campaign

Updated on November 17, 2020
Vaping, health risks and causes of death concept. Keywords and icons on white background

As more and more adolescents are choosing to vape, whether as a way to quit smoking or because they think it’s a safer and healthier alternative, the world of marketing has begun to change. While healthcare physicians and those in the pediatric community have their concerns, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to start taking action.

What does this action mean for advertisement and marketing companies?  Well, they’ll be facing more obstacles now that the FDA has begun planning to cut marketing of vapes, as well as tobacco, to teenagers. 

Vape Advertisement To Teens

There are four main platforms that expose teens to vape advertisements, including retail stores, Internet, TV/movies, and magazines/newspapers. While all of these provide high levels of exposure, the second highest, behind retail stores, is through the Internet. 

That being said, vape companies that want to advertise to teens are going to have difficulty doing so if there are bans in place that prevent them from utilizing many social media platforms for their advertisements. 

Online Marketing

One of the main reasons why vape advertisement and marketing is going to struggle with the coming FDA changes is because the agency has begun to both strictly monitor the process of marketing, as well as ban certain platforms from promoting vapes or e-cigarettes in the first place.  

According to https://vaperanger.com/blogs/guides/online-marketing-advertising-vape-shops, a site that gives tips on online marketing and advertising for vape shops, these are the current social media sites that the FDA has banned from promoting vapes and e-cigarettes:

  • Google Shopping
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Snapchat
  • Instagram

While yes, this is the majority of the social media marketing platforms, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only way to advertise online. There are, still, other ways to get around this ban, however it will become increasingly more difficult. 

Digital And Print Advertising

Around the same time that online marketing for vapes was suspended, so was digital and print advertising. This suspension included a statement that said companies like JUUL that wanted to lobby against the ban of vapes couldn’t do so. 

Beyond that, many TV networks, like CBS, Viacom, TNT, and WarnerMedia, stated that they would no longer be airing e-cigarette advertisements. The reasoning that these networks used was that they didn’t want to advertise e-cigarettes or vapes that were part of ongoing research of their potential to cause different health problems. 

All of these decisions were put into place after the FDA began investigating vape-related lung illnesses.

Abstract Photo Concept Showing E-Cig Vapes Recruiting Agency Preparing For A Revolution

FDA Marketing And Illegal Sales

In order to help fight the growing use of vapes and e-cigarettes, the FDA launched a Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan that focuses on limiting access to these kinds of cigarettes, as well as curbing marketing and even educating teens on the dangers that exist from smoking e-cigarettes. 

The FDA has done this through putting bans on marketing, as well as sending warning letters to any retailer who markets to or illegally sells their products to the youth. Beyond this, the FDA has begun to require manufacturers to present their plans for reducing minors’ access and use of their products. 

Bans Being Put In Place

Some states, including Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York, introduced bans in 2019 that entirely prevented the sale of vape products. Shortly after those three states placed bans, San Fransico joined in to ban the products of all products, including vapes, that hadn’t gained FDA approval just yet. 

In return, vape manufacturers, like Juul, refuted, saying that banning these sales would create a black market for those same products. That being said, it becomes very difficult to advertise products like vapes and e-cigarettes when many states have already banned them. 

Anti-Vape Advertisements On The Rise

Lastly, another way the federal government is interfering with vape advertisements is by funding and supporting advertisement campaigns that inform consumers of the dangers that are related to tobacco use, including:

  • Rapid onset cough
  • Weight loss
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Different lung diseases
  • Heart disease
  • Etc. 

Instead of letting ads promote vaping to young, impressionable teens, the government has become more involved in order to keep vapes out of the wrong hands, therefore hindering the pro-vape advertisements that vape manufacturers want to air.   

Conclusion

There are two main factors that contribute to obstacles that marketers and agencies face when it comes to vapes and e-cigarettes, and that’s the ban on both online marketing and the crack down on illegal vape sales. And secondly, the unknown about thehealth-related issues these vapes can cause to our youth. 

With both the CDC and FDA not entirely on board with e-cigarettes or vapes, and even their speaking out against the use of them, is sure to cause issues with the marketing and advertising of vapes. 

The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.