In 1991, a group of doctors wrote a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. A few years earlier, Camel Cigarettes had begun using a suave cartoon camel for much of its advertising and a then-recent study had found that the character possessed a significant appeal for children.
In short, the doctors approaching the FTC worried that Joe Camel would get children to smoke.
In 1997, the FTC found that the Joe Camel character was indeed targeting youth. In an article from the Los Angeles Times in 1995, it was found that smokers 12-18 during the Joe Camel campaign saw a drastic increase in preference for Camel cigarettes while adult smokers had not wavered from their smoke of choice. Only a few weeks after the FTC finding, Camel Cigarettes officially put their mascot to rest.
For a while, due in part to a tightened grip on what cigarette ads can and can’t do alongside public health campaigns against tobacco and nicotine, youth smoking rates dropped precipitously. Cigarettes seemed to slowly be becoming a thing of the past. It was no longer cool to smoke.
And then technology advanced.
“Every day may be stretching it, but I don’t think we go more than two days without catching a vape,” Adair County Schools’ Director of Pupil Personnel Robbie Harmon said before opening a desk drawer, donning a glove, and extracting an extra-large Ziploc bag filled with confiscated smoking products. The bag served as an anecdotal addendum to the Food and Drug Administration’s study that found two and a half million middle and high school students used e-cigarettes in 2022.
New technology has allowed nicotine and tobacco to once again be appealing to youth. There are only so many ways to reinvent the cigarette. But if the contents of the cigarette can be delivered in other ways, suddenly companies can get more creative with the presentation… and make far more money.
In a Wired article, “The US Is Being Flooded by Chinese Vapes,” author Louise Matsakis says that the United States is currenly infested with an influx of illegal tobacco products. Without oversight, these vapes can have virtually any amount of nicotine. The largely Chinese-produced vapes deliver “higher doses” according to the Wired article compared to pre-existing, traditional vapes.
What’s worse is these vapes are clearly not being targeted toward adults. They have flashy colors, rubbery or squishy textures, and screens built in that can allow the user to play simple video games like Tetris. Clearly, this is not something the Marlboro Man would be seen puffing on.
“If you smoke a Marlboro Red, you aren’t gonna smoke a peach mango vape,” Harmon said, arguing that even the flavors are tailored for a younger demographic.
It should be noted that 85% of the 2.5 million students who use e-cigarettes use a flavored product.
Most importantly, even with what amounts to a GameBoy welded into them, these knockoff vapes are cheap, with many retailing for as low as around five dollars. Even children can afford that, especially when these five-dollar nicotine boxes can often house over a thousand puffs before their vibrant LCD displays show them as empty.
“There are even clothing brands made for concealment for vapes. There are drawstrings for the hoodie… They’re made for concealment, they’re targeted for kids,” Adair County High School SRO Adam Cravens said.
Many vape products also prioritize concealment. E-cigs that can be disguised as a pen or a USB flash drive were part of Harmon’s stash of contraband.
“it’s a scary time what these vapes are doing with these kids’ lungs,” Harmon added.
The Center for Disease Control point out that no tobacco products are safe. With unregulated levels of nicotine in e-cigarettes (especially the illegal ones with higher nicotine percentages than regular ones), nicotine can harm brain development, it can affect the parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control, and youth are uniquely likely to become addicted to the already highly-addictive nicotine.
“My worst fear is kids aren’t doing it because it’s cool. They’re genuinely addicted,” Harmon said, also stating that he believes nicotine addiction is responsible for at least some student behavioral issues.
If people want to see that 2.5 million number drop, it will take a joint effort between the community and politicians, according to Harmon. Joe Camel was defeated once; he can be again.
“It’s everyone’s responsibility,” he said. “It’s gonna be legislators. It’s gonna be providers. It’s gonna be store clerks and store owners. It’s gonna be parents.”
By Kenley Godby
kenley@adairvoice.com
