Vape Messaging Targets Young People Via Social Media

A leading e-cigarette brand’s global Instagram
account is promoting vapes to vast audiences, including in
New Zealand, where regulations prohibit vape marketing to
young people.

Partnership deals with Formula
One racing, and glamorous young influencers are promoting
vapes to vast global audiences.

Many countries,
including the UK and New Zealand, have brought in
regulations to prevent marketing vapes to young people.
Social media platforms also have policies for this
purpose.

A new study published in Health
Promotion International has found Vuse, the world’s
leading e-cigarette brand, is using a global social account
to enter into paid partnerships, including a Formula One
racing team, to promote vapes to massive
audiences.

“Collaborations with music festivals and
inuencers show that the company is targeting young people
and may be using social media’s global reach to bypass
local bans,” says Dr Lucy Hardie, a population health
researcher at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland,
who led the international study.

“Fast cars and beautiful
women are a tried-and-true marketing strategy used by the
tobacco industry,” Hardie says.

The study reviewed
more than 400 Instagram posts associated with the
internationally leading e-cigarette brand, Vuse, owned by
British American Tobacco, between August 2023 to July
2024.

Hashtags like #VuseInsider were used to promote
brand ambassadors and festival experiences.
Vuse has
partnerships with social media influencers who produce
stylised ‘Get Ready with Me’ videos linked to music
festivals.

“You see a beautiful young influencer
choosing fashion and makeup set to cool music, a type of
clip popular with young women. It finishes with her popping
a vape into her handbag as she heads out the door to attend
a music festival,” Hardie says.

Vuse also sponsors
Formula One race team McLaren, meaning the company’s
branding and logos are used in posts that are promoted to
its nearly 14 million followers.

Despite the
platform’s policy, these are seldom disclosed as paid
partnerships, the study finds.
The researchers warn that
Vuse’s global Instagram marketing strategy allows it to
bypass national advertising bans, such as those in New
Zealand and in the UK, effectively exploiting legal gaps and
weak platform enforcement.

“Social media
is borderless and so is this type of marketing,” Hardie
says. “We urgently need global agreements restricting
e-cigarette marketing on social media, and platforms need to
enforce breaches of platform
policy.

“There needs to be greater
scrutiny and accountability for brand partnerships that
target vulnerable audiences with highly addictive
substances.”

The long-term health effects of youth
vaping are not yet known, but associations are emerging in
research that link vapes to heart and lung conditions, as
well as well-established issues related to nicotine
addiction.

Another related study just published in
Tobacco Control reveals how one New Zealand-based vape
company uses environmental schemes to maintain a presence at
youth-oriented music festivals in New Zealand, despite a
strict sponsorship ban since 2020.

The study, also led
by Hardie with colleagues from the University of Otago and
the University of Sydney, revealed that leading vape company
VAPO has established a recycling initiative, VapeCycle, that
can sponsor major festivals like Rhythm and Vines attended
by more than 20,000 young people.

The company’s
branding still features at the festivals on recycling bins.
Hardie says the studies point to a need for stronger
regulations and enforcement to better protect young
people.

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