The tobacco industry uses marketing and sales schemes to deliberately target the youth to expand its cigarette business. These tactics extend to electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS, such as e-cigarettes, and e-shisha, that heat a nicotine-containing e-liquid) and heated tobacco products (HTPs, which contain tobacco) designed to be especially attractive for the youth and to current smokers, too. Like cigarette advertisements, ENDS and HTPs ads are filled with youth-appealing themes, including featuring rock music festivals, parties, and prominent celebrities and other references to pop culture etc. ENDS and HTPs also come in youth-appealing fruity flavors, candy and sweet flavors that reduce the perception of harm and are clearly attractive to youths. Without a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotions, and sponsorships (including cross-border and online promotions) and use of flavors, the youths are particularly susceptible to the industries’ aggressive marketing ploys.*
This session provides brief information about the industry arguments for harm reduction and FAQ on harm reduction. It will expose fact of harm reduction products that tobacco industry tries to conceal.
*This paragraph is excerpted from the report Today’s teens, Tomorrow’s customers: Baiting youths with new tobacco products to create a new generation of addicts
