Smoking kills. In Spain, there is one death every 11 minutes from tobacco and is estimated to be responsible 30% of all cancer deaths. If we don’t do something, tobacco and its derivatives will continue to kill us. And despite these data, the tobacco industry continues to reinvent itself so as not to lose customers or lose business.
In the golden years of Hollywood, it used movie stars to promote its products by making tobacco use glamorous. Later she focused on women with a new product designed especially for them, the famous Virginia Slims, in which they used feminism as an advertising claim. Now they are the youngest and new devices are put into circulation for them, passing them off as less harmful and an option to quit smoking. Neither then nor now has the industry stopped hiding the fact that its products, conventional tobacco and new devices, harm health and kill.
If before it was cigarettes, now it is vapers. If before they were the stars of Hollywood, now they are the Influencers. A study by our Association shows that 9 out of 10 young people are exposed to digital smoke through social networks and on-demand platforms. Besides, 57.2% of these young people believe that smoking is fashionable because actors do it, streamers o infuencers.
Subsequently, an analysis to close the zoom in the networks showed that more than 13 million young followers were impacted between 2018 and 2023 with content showing tobacco and new gadgets. Thus, we cannot be surprised that young people start using tobacco earlier, at the age of 15, and that 1 in 2 students between the ages of 14 and 18 have used electronic cigarettes at some time. And this only in the digital realm.
The strategy also involves placing points of sale that are easily accessible to young people in places where they have fun and socialize, in attractive and modern establishments, where youthful graphic codes prevail, and even placing these products in stores and department stores next to sweets or in the vials of the boxes. Anything goes so that the consumer does not see danger in using these new devices, such as giving a vape to a girl for her communion.