A curious television commercial aired across the U.S. last month that, until its final few seconds, was indistinguishable from an ad for cigarettes — even though such advertising has been banned from broadcast TV for four decades.
In the television spot, the “cigarette” smoke, ash tip and flame look real. The carton looks authentic. The man smoking it looks satisfied.
The smoke, however, is vapor. The ash tip, plastic. The flame, simulated. The “cigarette” is a so-called electronic cigarette — in this case, an NJOY King, the first smokeless, nicotine-delivering, cigarette-like object that (at least according to its manufacturer) looks and feels and “smokes” like the real thing. Television commercials for NJOY Kings began running nationally in early December, making it the first smoking ad to run since Jan. 1, 1971, when Virginia Slims ran one final commercial a minute before the midnight deadline during The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. (President Nixon had signed legislation banning cigarette ads on TV and radio the year before.)
E-cigarettes, invented in 2003, currently account for less than 1% of the $80 billion U.S. cigarette market. But they are growing rapidly: UBS projects that sales, which have doubled every year since 2008, will reach $1 billion in 2013. Numbers like that have put Big Tobacco on notice. “Consumption of e-cigs may overtake traditional cigarettes in the next decade,” predicts Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog. “And they’ll only evolve and improve as time goes forward — at far less risk. The technology portion of it is sort of like Apple. This is just Version 1.” Cigarette News.
The Birth of the E-Cigarette
If e-cigarettes do start to take significant market share away from traditional cigarette makers, they’ll likely be led by NJOY, which has captured about a third of the e-cigarette market. The company was founded in 2006 by patent lawyer Mark Weiss, who had discovered an electronic cigar while traveling through China the year before. The technology was crude, but Weiss saw a business opportunity. Four years later, his brother Craig, also a patent attorney, took over as CEO.
The company’s strategy and professed ideals are to some extent a function of the fact that Craig Weiss doesn’t smoke at all. In short, NJOY claims it isn’t trying to create new smokers. It doesn’t market its product to children under 18, and it became the first independent e-cigarette maker to partner with the We Card program, which helps enforce the legal smoking age at convenience stores in the U.S. It doesn’t sell flavors like piña colada or bubble gum, only traditional menthol. And Weiss says his company is only going after current smokers, the 45 million Americans who light up on a regular basis.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 69% of smokers want to quit completely, and many of them are looking for alternatives. “Can you think of another consumer product in the world that the people who are buying it, while they’re buying it, are thinking, ‘God, I wish I wasn’t buying this?’ ” asks Weiss.
Many smokers try to quit for the obvious health benefits and the cost savings of not lighting up. For decades, tobacco has been the leading cause of preventable disease globally, and state and excise taxes have pushed prices of cigarette packs in places like Illinois and New York to upwards of $10 and $12 each.
But NJOY discovered something that smokers dislike almost as much as the high cost and the gloomy health implications. “Odor is a big thing for smokers,” says Weiss. “It’s their clothes and their hair, and it’s probably the biggest complaint that nonsmokers who are either cohabitating or co-working with smokers have about smoking.” Weiss believes NJOY has addressed this trifecta of problems: the NJOY King doesn’t burn tobacco; one e-cig (about $8) lasts about as long as two packs of conventional cigarettes; and it’s odorless.
A Virtual Cigarette
When NJOY created its new e-cig, the goal for Mark Scatterday — the King’s developer and also a nonsmoker — was to essentially create a virtual cigarette. The King is the same length and diameter as a traditional cigarette. The ash tip resembles glowing embers when in use. The cigarette itself has a papery feel to it. The “filter” is even a bit squishy.
Scatterday and others realized that to make a successful cigarette replacement, it had to not just meet the chemical needs of the user — delivering nicotine, that is — but also reproduce the full experience of smoking. For many smokers, the feel of a cigarette, the hand-to-mouth movement, the taste, even the physical act of holding the pack are almost as important as the nicotine itself. That’s one reason nicotine gum and patches have such high failure rates. Scatterday says his priority was figuring out how to “bridge the gap between your typical e-cigarette and an analog cigarette.”
Thursday, January 10, 2013
5-Year-Olds With Cigarettes: Glamorous or Hideous?
Frieke Janssens does not want you to hate smoking.
For Smoking Kids, an exhibit running from January 10 through February 8 at New York's VII gallery, the Belgian photographer placed cigarettes in the hands of children, most of them ages 4, 5, and 6. In doing so, she aimed to provoke viewers into thinking about smoking's inherent contradictions: Smoking is both the source of extreme pleasure and extreme pain; it is as sexy as it is grotesque; it is both the fount of a million friendships and an icon of isolation. "If I had photographed adults," said Janssens, "you would not pay attention." Below, she answers questions about her work.
When you created Smoking Kids, did you intend to shock people?
I don't like to shock people. What I try to do is show people something that I haven't already seen. I like surrealist work. I always try to make my photographs as beautiful as possible, to give my message in a really soft way.
Are the cigarettes and cigars real?
No. I used incense and chalk, so as not to be controversial. I also put cheese in the papers -- gruyere cheese that you put on your spaghetti. I really pay attention to a lot of details. People I work with laugh at it, because I'm so detailed.
Who are the children? Did their parents object to the photographs?
They are the children of friends of mine. Also, through Facebook I asked people to join the project. And then I also used a casting agency. I had 150 or 200 children to choose from, and then I chose 16. I thought a few parents would say no. But they all told me, "It's not real, I don't have problems with it."
What is "the message" in this series?
That's hard. I never want to tell people what to do. The pictures are not to criticize smoking. I want people to think about what smoking is: what it was in the past, what it will become in the future. Smoking is bad for your health, it costs a lot. On the other hand, it's so nice, cigarettes with friends.
Do you think any of the children will grow up to be smokers?
I don't think so. When I smoked for the first time, I was 14. I thought it was cool. I was a smoker myself for many years, and it was really hard to quit. But it's not the same anymore. I really think smoking is going to disappear.
You're also showing an exhibition at the VII gallery called Your Last Shot.
It's an art project where I offer to make someone their "last shot" that they can use on their grave or their prayer card when they die. For me a cemetery is like a photo exhibition. If you see a name, it doesn't tell you much, but if you see a picture, you learn so much. But when somebody dies, people always look very fast for a picture of that person and then they do bad Photoshop to remove other people from the picture. So my idea is, "Choose the last shot yourself."
I always work in dualities. I like to make something beautiful out of something ugly, to show people the two sides of a coin.
Celebrity Secret Female Smokers
Kate Hudson
For someone who’s famous for her fit physique, we’re surprised that Goldie’s daughter is willing to put tar in her body.
Kate Walsh
She’s not a doctor in real life, but she (badly) plays one on TV. Either way, cancer sticks will get you every time.
Ginnifer Goodwin
We refuse to believe that sweet little Margene from Big Love would smoke in real life. Who’s next? Willow Smith?
Paula Deen
Paula admitted to Larry King that when she’s not chowing on her artery-clogging creations. How is this woman still alive?
Milla Jovovich
Milla’s
pretty concerned with preventing wrinkles, according to her L’Oreal
commercials. Has anyone filled her in on the effects smoking has on the
skin? Someone should show her a photo of W.H. Auden late in life.
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