Guides on Electronic Cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes, which use the electronic cigarette cartomizer,promoted as a healthier alternative to tobacco, are getting powerful new backers with an unhealthy reputation: big tobacco companies.

The development points to ways Big Tobacco is moving to turn the young e-cigarette market to its advantage.

Electronic cigarette wholesale have become an overnight sensation, with $2.5 billion in sales, though that is a tiny fraction of the smoking industry. The devices have also touched off a public health debate. Some argue that e-cigarettes, which vaporize nicotine, offer a less dangerous alternative to cigarettes. Others warn there is insufficient evidence on the product’s health risks and whether e-cigarettes are prompting people to quit smoking.

In fact, the tobacco companies say they do not yet see evidence that most smokers are captivated by e-cigarettes, but they could become so.

A subsidiary of Reynolds American, which is known for Camel cigarettes, plans to announce on Tuesday that it will start distributing its e-cigarettes and all kinds of e cig starter kit nationwide on June 23. NuMark, a subsidiary of Altria, known for Marlboro cigarettes, plans to follow suit by year-end with MarkTen, as signs emerge showing that e-cigarettes are nipping into sales of cigarettes. Both companies join Lorillard, which owns the nation’s dominant e-cigarette brand, Blu eCigs.

Joining Lorillard, Reynolds plans a national marketing campaign, including television advertisements in major markets. E-cigarette makers say that move could popularize an alternative to tobacco, but critics warn it could glamorize smoking and lead people to smoke.

Stephanie Cordisco, the president of R. J. Reynolds Vapor Company, a Reynolds American subsidiary, said the company was going down a new path with e-cigarettes, with an eye to public health. She said Vuse would initially be available in 15,000 stores, supported by a national marketing campaign, including TV.
Continue reading the main story

“I know the perception of who we are and what we stand for,” Ms. Cordisco said, adding later, “We’re here to make sure we can put this industry on the right side of history.” She continued: “We’re trying to redefine tobacco enjoyment and give smokers an alternative, one that potentially reduces harm.”

David B. Sutton, a spokesman for Altria, which owns NuMark, the seller of MarkTen e-cigarettes, said the “Let It Glow” campaign that began this month was aimed at adults. Robert Bannon, the head of investor relations at Lorillard, defended Blu ads as “trying to make the products as attractive to consumers as possible, and we don’t think there’s a problem with that.” Echoing the views of companies in the e-cigarette industry, including small players, he said that such advertising is the way to tell consumers about “a viable alternative to combustible cigarettes.”

Sales of e-cigarettes are minuscule compared with Lorillard’s overall annual sales of $7 billion. Of that, Lorillard’s profit was around $1.2 billion, while the profit from e-cigarettes was just $6 million, raising questions of why tobacco companies are pushing so aggressively into the new market.

Mr. Bannon of Lorillard said the company saw two reasons to invest in e-cigarettes: first, as an insurance policy in case e-cigarette sales took off, and second, as a self-funding source of research and development into e-cigarette technology.

Such assurances aside, critics of the tobacco industry are wary.

“You’ve got to be extremely skeptical about what they’re up to,” said Gregg Haifley, director of federal relations for the American Cancer Society. Tobacco companies are not interested in getting people to quit smoking, he said. “They’re just too profitable for them to be interested in doing that.”


Source:A Bolder Effort by Big Tobacco on E-Cigarettes