Why the FDA and Smoking Establishment are Crucifying e-Cigarettes

By Alan Brody

If you had a problem that killed 400,000 people a year and affected the health of 40 million you’d think that anything that improves the situation is worth supporting. When it comes to smoking however, you would be dead wrong.

In 2004 a Chinese company created what is now called the e-Cigarette, a device that emulates a cigarette by delivering a flavored vapor with – or without nicotine. The vapor uses propylene glycol, a liquid that is generally considered safe for consumption by the FDA and appears in many food products.

There are several million users worldwide and while there are no safety studies, there are not reports of any harm either.

The advantage to smokers is they no longer have cancer-causing tars invading their lungs, they stop coughing, no longer smell and since the vapor is harmless, they can stay indoors and vape because there is no second-hand smoke problem.

It also saves smokers in New York enough money to make the payments on a mid-size car.

Amazingly, however, the FDA is against it. They are trying to block the importers of these product and are in Federal Court fighting for their right to ban these products.

It may be easy enough to understand the FDA’s need for territorial protection and ultimately a way to extract tax and regulatory revenue.

But how do you explain Public Health’s near unified opposition to e-Cigarettes?  American Lung, American Cancer as well as Tobacco-Free Kids are opposed to them.

Their arguments range from – “It’s not proven!” [Cigarettes are proven, of course, to kill] to it “attracts children.”

The best part is how small towns in New Jersey and Long Island have banned or limited the sale and use of these products. Suddenly, politicians who can’t fix their budgets have the time and energy to become expert enough on these products to prohibit them.

Is it possible that the anti-smoking establishment has obviously stopped working for the American people to become a symbiotic partner of the tobacco industry in sucking up the lavish tax handouts they generate.

Perversely, this opposition is only going help sell more e-Cigarettes in the long run. The reason is that most smokers hate e-Cigarettes because they leave out so much of what makes puffing pleasurable: the sensuous smoke, the softness of tobacco, the seduction of danger are all gone. Instead, you get this cool, clinical haze that studies have shown, may not even deliver much nicotine at all. Less than 1/40^th of smokers use these products. However, that will change because banning them will only make them more dangerous and by the perverse logic of smoking, more desirable.

Without getting too deep into the motivation for smoking let it be said that the industry discovered as early as 1922 that it had a lot more to do with the mind and spirit than the body. We start smoking in our adult initiation years when we have image and self-esteem issues. We also want to belong. So we do crazy things like get tattooed, body pierced, do extreme sport and party crazy, mange to get through school, get into trouble, fights, illegally drunk, vote, enroll in the military and so on. Smoking used to be our little helper. If you went asleep during the Mad Men years and awoke today like a 21st Century Rip van Winkle, you would find that all the Marlboro Country and Winston ads have gone – only to be replaced by prescription drug ads for exactly the things that bother us: sex, mental happiness, ADD and a few other things as well.

In other words – we need little helpers. It’s a guilty pleasure if you smoke it and a legitimate need if your doctor prescribes but the numbers tell us that millions are going to seek it out regardless. It exists somewhere between folk remedies and faith healing. So is it fair for a few bureaucrats and do-gooders to dictate human behavior – especially when they have their hands in the public purse?

Smoking is a deep and troubling issue. It is the first industry of this country - we probably wouldn’t be here without it since its very addiction probably made pioneers persevere in an unwelcoming colony. We are in denial of its actual role in our lives. The net result is that we have driven its evolution to China, have reinstituted creeping prohibition and are about to create a new black market and political corruption all over again.

It is tie for an honest and open discussion about smoking again - and now, e-Cigarettes.

Alan Brody is the author of Cigarette Seduction www.cigseduction.com and a former columnist with Advertising Age/Creativity and ADWEEK’s Marketing Computers.

Fireworks and Insight on the Dr. Stan Frager Show!

If you weren't able to take your attention off the Emmy's to listen to this fascinating conversation about America's first industry and how it really influences our lives, here is a summary.
It is like nothing you have ever heard about the smoking issue. That's a promise!

Fireworks and Insight on the Dr. Stan Frager Show!

What does smoking have to do with President Obama, Britney Spears and the Emmy-Award-winning "Mad Men?" Has smoking been reduced only to be overtaken by prescription drugs like Ridalin and Prozac - in effect, recasting smoking as a little understood form of self-medication. These were some of the issues discussed by "Cigarette Seduction" author, Alan Brody on the Dr. Stan Frager show on WGTK on Sunday night in the heart of tobacco country, Louisville, Kentucky.

"Mad Men" may sparkle with retro sexism and non-PC joie de vivre but it is also about a group of execs who believed they knew something about Americans that few others did. Thanks to a new kind of "motivational research" chronicled in Vance Packard's "Hidden Persuaders" that revolutionized Madison Ave. in the 50's and 60's they understood the psychological reasons why people really bought products. To most of their clients, it was a revelation.

With cigarettes, marketers understood it to be something we do at the initiation period of our lives and it holds a powerful, if little understood force over the lives of smokers. Each brand has a specific meaning that was researched and developed by psychoanalytically trained market researchers beginning in 1922, when American Tobacco hired America's first Freudian, A.A. Brill to work on the Lucky Strike brand. As it happened, their PR man, Edward Bernays, was also Freud's American nephew.

The not-fully convinced Dr. Frager (himself a psychologist) bridled at Mr. Brody's comment that Camel smokers usually have "sexual issues." Dr. Frager even pointed out that "Freud said sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Brody replied: "Freud was a cigar smoker who died of throat cancer. He was in denial."

Brody described how Marlboro was developed from the ashes, as it were, of what was once an exclusive woman's brand. In its new form, when it was reintroduced in the early 50's, its package had been developed to look like a medal, replete with the legend: "Veni. Vidi. Vici." (I came. I saw. I conquered.)

This implies Marlboro smokers have a militaristic or command-and-control issue. In the case of President Obama, it probably serves as part of his military empowerment, making it unlikely that he quit as long as he in charge of a war and commands generals. Britney Spears, who's dancing is highly energetic and meticulously rehearsed was seen smoking this brand just before her famous breakdown, suggesting that it was a form of rebellion against the regimentation in her performance schedule. She has not been seen with a cigarette lately and her career appears back on track.

Most importantly, knowing their brand helps people unravel their true reasons for smoking and leads to the best way to quit for good. Using the book's "Inner Quitting" method Brody recommends starting with the "unsmoking" technique - rolling back the years to that time in life when they started. This enables smokers to tackle the real challenge of quitting, which is not the addiction (that can be overcome in 3 days and best done when you have flu or a bad cold), but the mental part. This is the true abyss that smokers fear.

By facing the issue that lead them to smoking (we may start smoking with our friends but we become addicted and bond for our own personal reasons) "Inner Quitting" shows how to use the newfound knowledge to overcome smoking for good. This is no patch - although that can help - but it is essentially borrowing the technique those fortunate people you probably know who claim they were able to spontaneously quit. While they were just lucky, everyone else has to work at it and "Cigarette Seduction" explains how.

In closing, Mr. Brody talked briefly about the new Electronic Cigarettes and how they are likely to comprise as much as 50% of the market within 5 years.

To learn more about "Cigarette Seduction," listen to Mr. Brody's interview or view his videos, visit www.cigseduciton.com

To request a review copy please contact Ellen Schaeffer at ViziPress (212) 624-9110 or ellens@vizipress.com