Advertising is important for any product to become substantially popular and well known by the general public. This is true for any and all products including alcohol, cigarettes, and now more recently, e-cigarettes.
There is nothing illegal about e-cigarette manufacturers using advertising to their advantage in order to promote their line of products. However, some people might see a significant problem with this in that teenagers and even young children are unwittingly exposed to these advertisements whenever they watch TV or read print media.
According to a report on the Los Angeles Times, "Nearly 7 in 10 middle and high school students are exposed to e-cigarette ads." This could explain why e-cigarettes are becoming increasingly and alarmingly popular among the youth.
The National Youth Tobacco Survey recently revealed that almost a third of middle school students (66 percent) and 71 percent of high school students have seen at least a single advertisement for the alternative to a traditional cigarette.
There has been a noticeable growth in the amount of money spent to produce these e-cigarette advertisements. From $6.4 million in 2011, the amount spent has grown to a massive $115 million in 2014. Although this is only an estimate, it is still a large amount greater than what was spent three years prior.
There has been a correlation between this and the amount of young people who use e-cigarettes. Over the three-year period from 2011 to 2014, the amount of middle school children who have used an e-cigarette in the past month has grown from 0.6 percent to 3.9 percent. For high school students, the number jumped from 1.5 percent to 13.4 percent within the same time period.
Parents should be wary of what type of content they allow their child to view. In this instance, exposure to advertisements of e-cigarettes has convinced these children to use such products, which can possibly endanger their health.
