Tobacco industry’s promotional tactics luring youth towards vaping, nicotine addiction

PESHAWAR: The tobacco industry’s promotional strategies, including enticing lucky draw schemes, advertising flavored e-cigarettes, and offering significant incentives to retailers and distributors, are drawing the younger generation toward nicotine addiction through vaping and the use of nicotine pouches like Velo.

Public health experts warn that by leveraging deceptive narratives of “harm reduction,” the tobacco industry is aggressively promoting electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and nicotine pouches as tools for quitting smoking.Pakistan Loses $20M Cigarettes Export Order

The visually appealing advertising campaigns, featuring vibrant posters, prominent product displays in stores, and attractive lucky draws, are rapidly influencing youth to develop nicotine addiction, they added.

A research paper published by the Institute for Global Tobacco Control (IGTC) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (USA) highlights how advertising and promotional tactics employed by tobacco companies at retail outlets specifically target the youth to increase sales of tobacco products.

The findings of the Tobacco-Free Kids campaign underscore these tactics, revealing how tobacco companies’ marketing strategies at retail points encourage the uptake of tobacco products among children.

As part of the Big Tobacco, Tiny Targets initiative, trained researchers monitored 268 tobacco retail points of sale located within 100 meters of 133 schools across eight cities in Pakistan, including Islamabad, Murree, Larkana, Peshawar, Hafizabad, Pindi Bhattian, Jalalpur Bhattian, and Shakar Dara.

The study identified four common marketing tactics at these retail points in Pakistan and globally: positioning cigarettes near snacks and drinks favored by children, placing tobacco advertisements at children’s eye level, promoting flavored cigarettes, and selling single cigarette sticks as a cheaper alternative to full packs.

Public health experts also raised concerns about the rising popularity of vaping among young people. Industry players use candy-flavored liquids and sleek, high-tech devices to attract new users. By normalizing vaping, these companies not only foster nicotine dependency but also threaten years of progress in combating tobacco use in Pakistan.

Health experts urge all sectors to work together to counter the marketing strategies of the tobacco and related industries that target children.

“Leading tobacco companies spend $9.1 billion annually—approximately $25 million daily—on marketing their products, with many efforts directly reaching children globally,” said Malik Imran Ahmad, Country Representative for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK).

Khalil Ahmed, Manager of Research & Communication at the Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC), reported that around 1,200 children aged 6-15 in Pakistan start smoking every day.

These marketing strategies, which lead to a growing number of smokers and nicotine users, are placing a significant financial burden on the country’s public health sector, he added.

“The newly introduced products, including e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, are marketed under the pretext of harm reduction, a narrative that needs critical evaluation within our public health framework,” said Ajmal Shah, Coordinator of the Tobacco Control Cell in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Waseem Ahmad of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) highlighted that surveys in various countries show a significant increase in the use of e-cigarettes and similar products.

He shared global estimates, noting that the number of tobacco users worldwide has reached 1.3 billion, and tobacco claims one life every four seconds, with half of its users succumbing to its fatal consequences.

“Consumers have the right to know what they are buying—whether it is cereal, yogurt, or bread. We need to be fully informed about what we are consuming,” argued Waseem, emphasizing the need for a robust regulatory framework for tobacco control.

He also called for stricter regulations on the marketing and sale of new tobacco and nicotine products, particularly to protect young people.