Vape News

Simply because quitting smoking cigarettes is more than just pure willpower. Smoking cigarettes are psychologically addicting, socially addicting, and physiologically addicting. An SF gate blog states that:

The "Knocked Up" star, 31, has battled with her addiction to tobacco since she was 24 years old, but vowed to quit last year after admitting she had become "a slave" to her habit.

Heigl was also pushed to stop smoking after becoming a mother to adopted daughter Naleigh in September.

But she hasn't completely snubbed her dependency on nicotine - she was snapped puffing on an electronic cigarette on the set of her new film "One For The Money."

The device provides inhaled doses of nicotine through a vaporized solution so users don't have to breathe in harmful smoke.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dailydish/detail?entry_id=68061#ixzz0uLvsO0xf

It's interesting to see celebrities use electronic cigarettes. This will give e-cigs more press attention, be it negative or positive. I would think that if someone disliked such as Lindsay Lohan started vaping, it would create a backlash against the devices.

E-cig users must become an organized political force. If not, then the government will keep on regulating e-cigs and it will result in millions of vapers returning to analogs.

I remember the very first ad that I saw for electronic cigarettes. I was browsing music on myspace (back in the myspace era) and an ad for Gamucci popped up:

Looking at this ad now, it looks pretty ridiculous. To me, this is not what e-cigs are about. We do not vape for image. We vape to quit cigs, and eventually, we come to truly enjoy vaping as a hobby in itself. However, many companies have tried to capitalize on culture and lifestyle to sell their brand. For example, when the UK banned smoking indoors in 2006, companies sought to fill the void of being able to smoke inside bars and clubs. Gamucci's marketing strategy is to purport that their device allows you to still enjoy smoking inside and maintain the cool smoker's image.

Let's take a look at the marketing strategies of other e-cigarette brands:

1) Appeal to image

As conveyed through the Gamucci example, "image" is based on the perceptions of others. In certain thought-communities in which smoking is prevalent, such as young club-goers, cigarettes are seen as a crucial social element and pastime.

2) Appeal to convenience

 This incorporates all the "smoke anywhere" type ads. These marketing ploys mention how e-cigarettes circumvent the smoking bans that are becoming more and more common around the entire globe. Appeals to convenience also mention how you no longer need to use a lighter to "light up" and may mention how there is no smell or second-hand smoke

3) Appeal to health

This is probably the biggest selling point, but also one of the reasons why e-cigarettes are getting so much heat from health organizations like the FDA. This marketing strategy argues that with electronic cigarettes, you can still smoke, but without any of the negative health consequences. Even though several toxicology studies reveal how healthy e-cigs are, the health effects are not tested for the long-term. Based on my research, I know that e-cigs are better for you than analogs and who can argue against that? The problem with OVERLY appealing to health is that it elevates e-cigs to a drug/delivery/nicotine replacement therapy device, which has to be regulated by the FDA. I argue that the most responsible e-cig companies do not make definitive claims about their health effects and instead sell them as devices for adults looking for a less harmful alternative to tobacco products (in a future article, i will examine several scientific studies about e-cigarette health). In other words, I believe it isn't the brand's job to educate the consumer about the health consequences of smoking or not smoking, much how the alcohol companies do not educate their customers about alcoholism !!

4) Appeal to cost

Most electronic cigarette brands argue that their products will save the consumer money. A lot of them make outrageous claims, such as how one cartridge = one pack of cigs. This is not true. What is true is that the consumer can expect to be dropping about half as much money on their nicotine fix, granted a larger sunk-cost of purchasing the devices and a maintenance cost of buying atomizers, batteries, and e-liquid/cartridges.

When shopping for e-cigs, it is important that the consumer is conscious of these marketing ploys so that he or she can separate a brand's actual selling points and value from the filler that almost every e-cig brand regurgitates.

Theres so many brands on the market right now. Which ones are the ripoffs? Sometimes the line is unclear. And other times it's obvious. Let's take a look at an obvious rip-off:

Prado Electronic Cigarettes

First off, here's a shot from their website:

If that doesn't look like an obvious rip-off, then I don't know what is. It looks like a fucking pron website, gambling website, or something else that will take your money with little return.

Their website title is www.safesecuretrial.com. That really sounds like a porn website and has nothing to do with e cigs. Also, wtf is up with the "hot chick". Looks fucking ridiculous.

A few more annoying things about their website:

-When you try to navigate away from it, a pop-up notification asks, "Are you sure you want to leave th website?!?!?"
-There is no store. You have to fill out personal information before you can do anything. You can't even see their products
-The youtube video on the bottom right corner of the screen
-The appeal to authority: "Dr. Sanjay Gupta Chief Medical Correspondent of CNN says, "This is becoming quite popular! Nicotine in and of itself is used to help people stop smoking..."and... "We had somebody who's a smoker try this and they were actually pretty surprised at how much it did feel like smoking, you do have the device that looks like a cigarette, your putting it to your mouth and puffing it like a cigarette. ..he was actually really surprised at how much it felt like a cigarette."

The sad thing is that google searches for Prado e-cigs result in mostly ripoff reports for the devices, such as this one:When I called to complain and discuss returning the ECIG4FREE. They actually laughed. No Returns, No Free Trial. I received the Prado cigarette with no instructions or booklet of any kind. No receipt. I had to figure out how to put it together. I received it Feb. 20, 2010. on Saturday. Today is Feb. 23, 2010 Tuesday.


Order placed 1/25/2010 $9.90 Charged to my account. FREE Trial 30 days on the website. 10 days according to Jake, the minute your credit card is approved.

NO Refunds. No Returns. They told me not to waste my time or shipping costs returning the product, they would only return it to me. The first charge was $9.90 then 2/12/10 they charged $149,000 to my card. 2/19/10 they hit my card again for $69.90.  They told me that I could not refund the product I have not even received yet. Or remove the charge.

 Today is the first day I tried and it taste bad, the cigarette is heavy and no way would even resemble a cigarette.

I thought it would help with trying to cut back. Wrong! It has a terrible taste and what part of any of this is a Free Trial?

Total Charges $229.70 I just hope the letter I sent will stop future charges. They sent refill cartridges according to Jake, that I have not received yet. But, I was billed for them and could not cancel, return, or void.

I think a lesson to all of us that would like to try something for Free should understand it will be at great cost in the end. If you think you can try it for free! Remmber, NOTHING IS FREE!

I guess the good thing is that it looks like they actually shipped the device to this poor guy. If you are looking to buy an e-cig that is not a ripoff, I suggest start reading up and getting educated on a place such as an online forum, in which people are not motivated by money (usually) to push a product.

http://www.prlog.org/10763429-fda-may-ban-marijuana-cigarettes-which-provide-vapor-rush-on-planes-and-in-workplace.html

Looks like companies are trying to capitalize on the potential to vaporize other substances besides nicotine in their e-cigs. Theoretically, you can vape just about any drug; it just has to be in the right form.

From the article:

Ads for the new product seemingly invite users not only to violate laws against smoking generally in public places, but also laws against the use of marijuana itself, suggesting that you can now smoke weed in public without attracting attention: "the latest buzz in the pot world: Vapor Rush . . . Vapor Rush is a new way to smoke bud that allows you to smoke anywhere without a lighter, smell, shake, smoke and unwanted attention."  Users are invited to get high from "three different varieties [of marijuana]: haze, bliss and rush . . .taken from potent sativa and indica strains of cannabis." http://www.vaporrush.com/

Hmmm, it seems that this could be a potential setback for e-cigarettes. If people begin seeing them as a hippy-stoner drug delivery device, then it could incite protest towards e-cigarettes. However, there is huge potential for those who enjoy smoking marijuana.And to make things even more complicated (or more stupid), these companies are trying to sell devices that are designed for smoking weed. I'm calling bullshit on this one. I would think that vaping bud out of a prodigy v3 or a mod would be the best way to go. Furthermore, the website claims that the user can buy cartridges at their local dispensary. Based on my research, I have yet to find a dispensary that sells these cartriges. The best that one can do is make their own marijuana e-liquid. For example, form doing a google search, I found that users have successfully vaped marijuana out of an e-cig for quite some time:

http://forum.grasscity.com/apprentice-tokers/327483-hash-oil-e-cigarette.html

One user from the grasscity forums posted this:

hash oil tends to clog my atomizer. But if you dont mind cleaning it your self and taking the risk (ie have a spare on hand) give it a try it gets you high.

The better solution i have found is to dissolve the oil in a glycerine tincture similar to the diy e-liquids. I put 1 tsp glycerine to 1/2 gram of oil to maintain potency. I use a coffe warmer to heat it to speed the mixture. This still clogs the atomizer eventually but no more then standard e-liquids in my opinion.

In conclusion, people have been experimenting with the potential to combine hash oil with a substance like Propylene glycol. 

With marijuana legalization up on the ballots in California next election, it might be yet another idea that e-cig companies can capitalize on. But it is not yet clear whether or not this is a good or bad thing for the world of vapes and the public's acceptance of e-cigs.