Anti-vaping campaign could see millions go up in smoke, experts warn
A pot of gold is on offer for whoever nabs a new $63 million public health campaign to discourage Aussies from vaping – but the opportunity to make a meaningful impact could be squandered, experts warn.
Last week’s federal budget included a sizeable spend as part of a broader range of measures to tackle skyrocketing rates of vaping, particularly among young people.
Industry figures say the money will be wasted if the same old shock-and-awe tactics employed in the past for smoking and road safety initiatives are recycled.
Sandy Fitzgerald is a senior lecturer in marketing at RMIT.
Dr Sandy Fitzgerald, a senior lecturer in marketing at RMIT University and a health behavioural change researcher, said effectively targeting this new generation will be no easy feat.
“We need to acknowledge, particularly for people under 25, that these interventions can be perceived as paternalistic, revenue-raising by the government and punitive in orientation,” she said.
Making them “feel stupid or dumb just because they were curious to try vaping” will see any messaging fail to cut through, she said.
Fitzgerald suggested creating a narrative with a clear evil villain – ‘big tobacco’.
“Anti-vaping campaigns need to present a convincing value proposition for this age group to quit – that vaping robs you of your autonomy and turns you into a pawn,” she said.
“How would they feel if targeted information about big tobacco is presented to them (in a way) that they are simply pawns and are used and controlled by this industry?
“Vapers, who we know are typically under 25, may find that information confronting and perhaps start questioning if they wish to be controlled and have their autonomy stripped away.”
Dee Madigan, executive creative director at Campaign Edge and star of ABC series Gruen, said good behavioural change campaigns “need a carrot and a stick”.
Campaign Edge’s Dee Madigan.
“With teenagers, it’s working out what they’re most motivated by and going hard on it. That can be tricky, as past examples have shown,” Madigan said.
When it comes to flashy and big budget campaigns for government, Madigan said many often fail to achieve the initial goal – despite earning plenty of plaudits.
“Remember those incredibly graphic and shocking road safety ads decades ago that all the creatives wanted to work on because they’d always win a stack of awards? They showed young guys getting in cars, drunk or speeding, and killing themselves and their mates.
“They didn’t work. Fear of death doesn’t motivate most young guys. They think they’re invincible.”
One speeding campaign that did successfully demonstrate cut-through with its target market was one without any blood, guts and gore, she pointed out.
“The ad that came out implying speeding or showing off in your car meant you had a small penis – the group of girls waving their pinkie fingers – that worked.”
She suggested “going in hard on vanity” and any immediate risks, not long-term ones.
“I mean, off the top of my head, there’s some stuff out there about vaping damaging your teeth and potentially having a visual impact.
“Pick on the bit that they’ll care about right now. Go for vanity.
“There’s no point talking about damage to their lungs in 40 years’ time. That’s a lifetime away. If you tell them vaping will make their teeth look really horrible imminently, maybe you’ll get somewhere.”
Madigan agreed that there’s merit in “demonising big tobacco” and creating a perception that young people are being tricked.
“That demographic probably has something of a mistrust of authority and of big faceless corporations,” she said.
She also supported plain packaging-style restrictions on devices given teenagers “more than almost any other demographic” respond to image and ‘brand’.
“There’s a design element here that could be worth exploring. Making them unpretty – similar to what plain packing did – shouldn’t be discounted. Young people are big on image and big on brand.
“I reckon make the vapes ugly and you might lower the appeal.”
The need for an effective campaign is clear, with Health Minister Mark Butler pointing out that young people who vape are three times as likely to take up smoking.
“Is it any wonder that under 25s are the only cohort in the community currently recording an increase in smoking rates?” Butler said.
“Vaping is creating a whole new generation of nicotine dependency in our community. It poses a major threat to Australia’s success in tobacco control and the Albanese Government is not going to stand by and let this happen.”
I love blowing some cheeky smoke clouds at my desk.
Takes the edge off and I feel cool around the young’ns.
My throat hurts.
The End.
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Jim, your vivid narrative is truly ad agency-esque.
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If this is not stopped, 50 years from now we will have entire generations in which people can’t breathe air until it contains nicotine in water vapour.
The human race will be vaping 24/7
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Classic old dinosaurs in government. They label the younger generation as ‘vain’ instead of identifying the causes of stress that may be driving people to use nicotine, alcohol and other drugs.
I’ll give you one: the housing crisis.
Oh no, it can’t be that. Gen Z’s just want a pretty, pink vape!!!
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As housing has become more unaffordable over the last decade, tobacco use has fallen.
Gen Z is vaping as they don’t perceive it as bad for their health. It’s just flavoured water vapour.
This is similar to the 50% of all Australians who smoked tobacco in the 50s. It was not because of stress, it was thought to be harmless.
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I remember sitting in transit at Istanbul Airport – six, seven years ago – a chap further along the counter furtively bringing something to his lips and then blowing out some smoke. An early vaper. We later realised. Last year on a railway station north of Sydney a bunch of teenagers (lads and lasses dressed for a night out) sharing pretty-coloured sticks amongst each other. Filling the air around their heads as they exhaled with clouds of vapour. Shocking to see – imagining the crap with which they were coating their insides and lungs. And then indulging on the train for the few stops till they got out. Our young people must be protected from “the Marlboro Man” of these times. There IS nothing cool in vaping.
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