In the UK, electronic cigarettes can be shown on TV. A decision that revives the debate in the country, on the long-term effects of this device, more and more popular with smokers.
Decidedly, Great Britain likes to take the opposite view of France. While the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, included restrictions on electronic cigarettes in her anti-smoking plan unveiled on September 25, advertisements showing electronic cigarettes will be allowed on British screens, from November 10.
One year of e-cigarettes on TV
Until now, advertisements for electronic cigarettes could legally be shown on television, but cigarettes as such should not appear. The Advertising Regulatory Commission (CAP) decided that this rule made little sense, and that it would now be possible to show them. However, this decision will have to be reviewed after a year, and some restrictions are imposed: companies will not be able to direct their advertising campaigns towards those under 18, say that their products are healthier than traditional cigarettes, or encourage non-smokers to buy an electronic cigarette.
More or less subtle advertisements
Several advertising spots, a little offbeat or provocative, had tried to circumvent the initial ban on directly showing an electronic cigarette. This is the case with this one, which made the analogy between the pleasure of smoking and practicing oral sex:
In order not to directly show the electronic cigarette, another brand had chosen to surf the Gangnam style trend:
In the anti-smoking plan
Beyond this advertising story, electronic cigarettes are still very poorly regulated in the United Kingdom, and the scientific community is divided as to their misdeeds. Thus, in September, researchers at UCL University in London launched the controversy by saying that if all smokers switched to this type of cigarette, lives could be saved each year by preventing lung cancer. They thus contested the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), which proposed to ban their use in public places.
In France, on the other hand, in accordance with the opinion of the Council of State of October 2013, the use of electronic cigarettes will be prohibited in several public establishments, in particular those accommodating minors, in transport and, at work, in enclosed spaces. The oversight authorities also intend to limit advertising for electronic cigarettes, before banning it definitively on May 20, 2016, except in points of sale and in publications intended for professionals working in the trade of these products.
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