It’s been 40 years since the country has seen the last on air campaign produced by tobacco manufacturers. But now they’re back with a vengeance, advertising a different product, the e-cigarettes.
The device is been viewed as the solution to public smoking bans and is been proven as a better alternative to regular cigarettes. The e-cigs are battery operated devices that look and may even feel like the real thing but does not create smoke or ashes that might offend other people.
Despite its stark similarity in appearance, manufacturers have made them distinctive enough to avoid being mistaken for the usual tobacco filled cigars. Lorillard big boss Murray Kessler told Wall Street Journal in an interview that his company have been pushing the black pen-like e-cigs to avoid confusion with white coloured cigarettes.
E-cigarettes’ pitch relive tobacco commercials of the past
Its entry in the market is expected to rake in about USD 1.7 billion this year and about USD 10 billion by 2017. These projected revenues have spurred e-cigarette manufacturers to go all out in their campaign, which they could not have done in marketing traditional cigarettes.
Although there aren’t many studies on the long-term safety effects of e-cigs, about six per cent of adults have tried them in 2011, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal government have laid out plans to implement regulation of the e-cigs by October. With 200 e-cigarette companies in the market, the regulation may be gruelling work.
