The Sun has a dig at vaping again

[zouzounaki]

@Crewella it’s not about whether you were aware of the smoking feminists or not, though. Smoking has been made cool, edgy and rebellious directly through marketing strategies and product placement over the course of decades. The idea that circumstances could be making anybody immune to cultural influences - which have been consistently manipulated by vested interests - is difficult to take seriously.

 

[KetracelWhite]

How about marketing funeral services the same way?

“ Mr. Flipsy Flopsy Rabbit’s undertakers” etc

Let’s dig ourselves a grave, then.

 

[devilbedamned]

I think you are missing the point, though. This is a very simple, elementary phenomenon. A photograph of the offending eliquid packaging is all that’s required to illustrate it.

Common sense would say yes. One would assume that a picture of Mickey Mouse would get the children all excited about a product. But it still needs to be backed by proper research, which is why such studies exist and need to be relied on when you are doing something as important as trying to inform the public opinion, imho.
This is similar to what critics say when they link violence in video games to violent tendencies in children. But the studies are not so cut and dry on the matter.

 

[Crewella]

How about marketing funeral services the same way?

“ Mr. Flipsy Flopsy Rabbit’s undertakers” etc

LOL!! Blimey those lettuces were soporific .........

 

[Crewella]

@Crewella it’s not about whether you were aware of the smoking feminists or not, though. Smoking has been made cool, edgy and rebellious directly through marketing strategies and product placement over the course of decades. The idea that circumstances could be making anybody immune to cultural influences - which have been consistently manipulated by vested interests - is difficult to take seriously.

It's difficult to take most 13 year olds seriously though. I just feel you're making it deeper than it was. At the time, if I remember correctly, my limited game plan was to do the opposite of what I was told most of the time. I found other people who felt the same, and they smoked. So I smoked. There may well have been eons of marketing strategies ....... but I suspect many of them were as crap and ill-thought-out as many today are? And their idea of 'cool' would certainly not have been mine, at the time.

 

[JesusFoggingChrist]

No, what they do is sit there, think "how can we create a negative media story about vaping" ... then they go "I know, we'll say they are aiming the products at children" ... then pull up some pictures of e-liquids that look like sweet packets and off they go, get their mates in the tobacco industry to back them up and say they are pulling competitors products off the shelves and their mates in the media to publish it ... job done.

They aren't stupid, they probably don't even believe it themselves.

But what's the counter argument for having 'childish packaging' on e-liquids? ... what's the positives? I can't really even think of a good defense for it let alone a positive spin.

Yeah i know, its just frustrating that these penpushing wankers dictate everything and everything at free will etc without any opposition. Its no different from them arseholes trying to ban grand theft auto because kids might get the wrong idea and start murdering prostitutes abd doing drugs...but just like the eliquid, kids shouldnt be anywhere near it in the first place. Its not the games fault, its not the ejuice brands fault. Its the bastards doo-gooders inventing the problems in the first place fault

 

[speedfreek67]

It really is quite simple.

The reason some kids vape is because they have seen other kids, or "cool" adults, or their parents, vaping.

There are no vape adverts to entice them.

No kid saw a brightly coloured bottle of juice in a shop somewhere, asked what it was, found out it was vape juice and then decided to invest in vaping kit and juice and start vaping because of the branding on a bottle. To suggest so is ludicrous.

It's all about peer pressure, being the cool kid, and rebellion. Not coz the bottle resembles a packet of skittles.

 

[zouzounaki]

Let’s reiterate that the situation here is not about kids vaping.

 

[Simon G]

It really is quite simple.

The reason some kids vape is because they have seen other kids, or "cool" adults, or their parents, vaping.

There are no vape adverts to entice them.

No kid saw a brightly coloured bottle of juice in a shop somewhere, asked what it was, found out it was vape juice and then decided to invest in vaping kit and juice and start vaping because of the branding on a bottle. To suggest so is ludicrous.

It's all about peer pressure, being the cool kid, and rebellion. Not coz the bottle resembles a packet of skittles.

I agree but I think the problem is we are working within an already set of established 'norms' in packaging, the people that design these e-liquid bottles and packaging know this, they either don't care or they are exploiting it.

take these 2 yogurts.. it's pretty obvious to everyone which is aimed at adults and which is aimed at children...

If your e-liquid bottle looks like the one of the left then you will be accused of marketing it to kids, because those are the all the signifiers used in marketing to children and signifiers that it is a 'children's product' .. we all know this without even thinking about it it's so ingrained. We also know that adults and children alike can enjoy both products. ... we also know that kids aren't rushing into tesco with their pocket money to buy yogurts. I don't think that changes anything though.

 

[zouzounaki]

Common sense would say yes. One would assume that a picture of Mickey Mouse would get the children all excited about a product. But it still needs to be backed by proper research, which is why such studies exist and need to be relied on when you are doing something as important as trying to inform the public opinion, imho.
This is similar to what critics say when they link violence in video games to violent tendencies in children. But the studies are not so cut and dry on the matter.

I’m really not sure why we are debating this point. It has nothing to do with whether or not children are actually attracted to the childish marketing. The situation here is about vested interests who likely want to either eradicate vaping, or take it over completely, being given a means by which to do that, by the vaping industry itself.