NEWS
COMING SOON
TO A TV NEAR YOU
TOBACCO AND VAPING PRODUCTS ACT OPENS UP A HOST OF VAPING
ADVERTISING POSSIBILITIES INCLUDING TV, RADIO AND NEWSPAPERS
BY GORDON STRIBLING
Much like the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) brought
in last year to regulate Europe’s vape industry, the
Tobacco and Vaping Products Act comes with both pros
and cons for the industry and for the vaping community.
One big positive is that the Act has opened up a wealth
of advertising possibilities. However, unlike the TPD
which heavily restricts how and where companies can
advertise their products, the Canadian Act permits
advertising on TV, radio, in newspapers – pretty much
anywhere you’d normally find consumer advertising. This
reaffirms Canada’s reputation as a forward-thinking and
progressive nation.
While companies are prohibited from making medical
claims about their products – unless they’ve sought and
received approval to do so from Health Canada – vaping
products are being allowed because the government
acknowledges that they offer a safer alternative to
smoking. The Act is far more prohibitive of the tobacco
industry, as the new plain packaging initiative shows.
After the legislation was given royal ascent, the
Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Health,
said:
“We’re taking a principled and flexible approach to
reducing the harms of tobacco use by protecting youth
and non-users of tobacco products from nicotine addiction
and inducements to use tobacco. We’re also placing
restrictions on the promotion of vaping products while
allowing adults to legally access them as a less harmful
alternative to cigarettes and advancing work to introduce
plain and standardised packaging for tobacco products.”
The new Act prohibits advertising where, “there are
reasonable grounds to believe that the advertising could
be appealing to young persons.”
As well as an outright ban on flavours like candy that
supposedly appeal to kids, new packaging restrictions
prohibit the depiction of animals and people.
The bill expressly prohibits lifestyle advertising, i.e.
advertising that is deemed aspirational or in some
way suggestive that the product could enhance the
consumer’s way of life.
22 | VMC
There are two exceptions to this rule:
“Subject to the regulations, a person may promote a
vaping product, a vaping product-related brand element
or a thing that displays a vaping product-related brand
element by means of lifestyle advertising that is in a
publication that is addressed and sent to an adult who is
identified by name [or] places where young persons are
not permitted by law.”
This could include magazine subscriptions and mailing
lists. In fact, anything addressed to a specific individual.
Flyers or other forms of mass-marketing materials not
addressed to specific persons are forbidden under
the Act.
“WE’RE ALSO PLACING
RESTRICTIONS ON THE
PROMOTION OF VAPING
PRODUCTS WHILE
ALLOWING ADULTS TO
LEGALLY ACCESS THEM
AS A LESS HARMFUL
ALTERNATIVE TO
CIGARETTES”
Perhaps the most tantalising prospect of all is the potential
for companies to advertise vaping products on TV. At
this early stage, it’s unclear what a vaping commercial
would actually look like and it may take some time for
Health Canada to draft guidelines, but this does present
the industry with a golden opportunity, albeit a potentially
expensive one.