When it comes to vaping, let’s not make the mistakes of the past

I have always believed that advertising and regulation go hand in hand.

Advertising needs regulation because of its power. We understand this better than anyone because we use them every day to phenomenal commercial effect and we know that power is easily abused. Failure to regulate political advertising and hold it to the same standards as the rest of our industry is a real threat to our democracy.

However, advertising not only needs regulation, but also benefits from it, because we operate and our work is effective only with the consent of the society we serve. Social regulation of what we do makes advertising sustainable in the long term by ensuring it properly serves our economy.

And as company priorities change over time, so does what we can advertise and how we can do it. Indeed, in the thirty years I’ve been in this business, I’ve seen tobacco advertising become illegal, and I’ve seen the ban on TV advertising for tampons lifted.

However, there are situations when we need to lead society and not follow it. When we need to say that we don’t believe that the power of what we do should be used to promote a particular product or behavior.

As an industry we now need to stand up to people using our talent to promote vaping beyond the current TV and online ban. We simply cannot afford to make the mistakes of the past and let our creativity facilitate a new addiction epidemic, especially among our young people.

I accept that we do not categorically know that vaping is harmful. Although concerns are growing about the chemistry of e-liquids, and specifically the chemical reactions that take place in the cocktail of ingredients when they are heated – even though the reported deaths in the US have a lot to do with vaping cannabis compounds.

I acknowledge that while vaping is dangerous, it is likely that the danger is a fraction of that of smoking alone. Although evidence is mounting that vaping is as much a gateway to nicotine addiction for young people as a smoking cessation strategy – if not more so. Vaping use among children who have never smoked doubles every year, leading to addiction problems now and throughout life.

I agree that currently in the UK Public Health England believe that vaping should be actively promoted to reduce smoking rates, with the support of the Royal College of Physicians. But the UK is increasingly isolated in this.

I recognize that virtually everything we advertise could cause harm if overdone, after all you could theoretically die from drinking too much caffeine. Although in reality you have to consume more coffee than the body can physically handle to reach a lethal dose.

However, I cannot accept that in the period between the creation of these products and a more complete understanding of their impact and potential dangers, our industry should be used to “grab land” over human lives and future health.

Furthermore, I find it deeply disturbing that our talents and energies can be channeled into creating a set of consumer behaviors that we will then have to sort out over the course of decades in order to pass massive public health education campaigns. Some might consider this an admirable system of creating work for the communications industry, I intend to consider it highly unethical.

I am not advocating banning the products and liquids themselves, as many countries have already done. Although the arguments for banning disposable vapors and flavors designed to attract children are indisputable.

And in any case banning things is not my business, my business is how to use the power of advertising and for what purpose.

Which I don’t think it is at all – a complete ban on the promotion of vaping outside of medical facilities. Of course, there seems little hope of that at the moment, although the government is finally waking up to the problem of vaping among children.

In the meantime, you may feel that there is little you can do if our regulators are slow to crack down on e-cigarette advertising. But this is nonsense, the last time around the change started individuals who refused to work for tobacco, then entire agencies, then business as a whole.

As an industry, we were destined not to make the same mistake with vaping when it came to tobacco

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