By Pat Hong from Smoking products haven’t been advertised in the UK for some time due to legislative restrictions. However, a recent lift on advertising standards has meant an advertisement for electronic cigarettes (e‑cigarettes), or “vaping”, has run on UK TV screens. Brands, however, have little to go on in terms of smoking advertisements, and it seems the practice could do with refinements for a modern audience.
Many years ago, when advertising cigarettes were still legal and back when “more doctors smoked Camels than any other cigarette,” one rule presided above all else: sex sells.
As far back as the 1950s, cigarette brands were pushing the boundaries of what was appropriate in advertising with provocative graphics of women clad in short skirts in Lucky Strike promotions, and this established a trend that would continue for decades.
Just check out this seductive ’70s TV spot from John Player Special:
The fact that the campaigns ran with this theme for so long proves that they were once effective. However the gradual ban of all tobacco related advertising in subsequent years meant that smoking related advertising of any kind soon became relegated to history.
E‑cigs: The Return Of Smoking Advertising
Smoking advertising has made a miraculous comeback to UK TV screens. A recent change in advertising standards means UK audiences have seen someone inhale what seems to be smoke on a TV advertisement for the first time in almost 50 years. Not tobacco, of course, but e‑cigarettes.
Here’s the ad:
However, the advert was met with a cloud of controversy. The woman featured in the ad appeared in a couple of video advertisements released by VIP earlier this year. These were bombarded with complaints and kicked up a bit of a fuss. After all, there’s no smoke without fire.
Before we go on, here’s the original unedited version of the advertisement:
Evidently VIP follows a tradition of using a sexual theme in smoking advertisements. Although toned down in their latest TV edit, they have chosen a line of messaging that is considerably more explicit with sexual innuendos than advertising campaigns for smoking in past decades.
The logic (as I’m sure it was outlined VIPs creative marketing brainstorms) was that as a society UK consumers have moved on and become considerably more liberal and desensitized in their views of sex in the media, and any attempt to use the theme in their advertising would have to be explicit or else come across as outdated and coy.
However, this has turned out to be a misjudgement. The UK Advertising Standards Agency received 1,156 complaints about the adverts, mainly with some pointing out that they were sexist, degrading, and exploitative to women, and even accusing the use of the word “vape” as being a deliberate, and inappropriate wordplay on the word “rape.”
Some industry figureheads have spoke out against the adverts as actually “hurting the e‑cigarette” industry. As Jacob Fuller, CEO of Blu, voiced in an interview with City AM:
“Some of our competitors have made ads which hurt the industry due to their bad taste.”
Savvy, Not Sexy
On paper, it falls within a long tradition of adverting smoking and the creators of campaign may even have seen it as a safe bet. Something, evidently, has changed in the way consumers expect brands to act and market to them.
It’s a change that has been fueled by digital marketing, and means, simply, that sex alone no longer sells. After all, cigarette advertising of the mid 20th century was all about telling consumers what they needed. Brand-centric, rather than consumer-centric messages:
Rather cunningly, it meant being able to avoid all the not-so-pleasant facts about smoking (in that that they are somewhat perilous to health).
Missing The Value Proposition
E‑cigarettes however, have an different value proposition. While controversial, there are arguments in favor of the devices, especially regarding their ability to wean smokers off tobacco onto something that, while equally addictive, is far less detrimental to one’s wellbeing.
So if one were to apply the principles of best practice digital marketing, of momentology and providing something consumer-centric and useful to consumers as a means of informing their purchases decisions at every touchpoint in which they seek out interactions with your brand, VIPs adverts should have reinforced consumer understanding about the benefits of their product. Not bombard viewers with overly explicit gasps of an overexcited vaping woman.
There is still a great deal of misunderstanding as to the benefits and dangers of e‑cigarettes, and the dangers of passive vaping for example — why not address some those issues as an instigator for real change in the mindsets of e‑cigarette manufacturers’ target audiences?
Successful marketing today isn’t about brands telling consumers that they need to buy their product, or that they will miraculous become sexier if they do. It’s about being consumer centric, and helping consumers to find what they need with exceptional customer experience delivery across a range of need states.
If there are gaps in understanding and knowledge about a product, then be informative and educational. ‘Sexy’ may get you some attention, but so will a little creativity, and creativity will offend far less.
To do any less than this, can actually damage the prospects of a brands, or indeed even an industry, and in this case, the health of consumers. As Fuller stated, “if you start regulating [the industry] like tobacco and stop allowing e‑cigarettes to be advertised, then smokers won’t be educated, and the alternative for them is to continue to smoke.”
Understanding Modern Consumers
Today’s consumers aren’t as gullible previous generations. Consumers seek authenticity, usefulness, and great purchasing experiences above all else.
A shiny advertisement produced to manipulate emotions is no longer enough. And sex, when utilized by a brand to tenuously enhance the desirability of a product, no longer works with the savvy, media saturated consumers of modern society.
E‑cigarette manufacturers may have had the chance to reach, and change the perception of new audiences with video and TV campaigns, but here have clearly missed the mark. Simply trusting in “sex sells” will increasingly become a worthless concept.
Just like an annoying popup, using sex in smoking advertisements is never really wanted. It no longer fulfills a tantalizing, desirable taboo, but instead forms a distasteful and somewhat ineffective attempt to entice a change in lifestyle for an audience that has long since moved on.
What are your thoughts on VIP’s advertising?
