E-Cigarette Ads on British Loophole Thanks to Legal Loophole

Great Britain has had a long-standing law that bans the advertisement of tobacco products on national television. Through what is apparently a gaping loophole in the legislation, British American Tobacco will become the largest tobacco company to advertise on British television in decades.

The law, which was intended to stop big tobacco companies from advertising on a national scale through television, reportedly used the term "smoking" as a basis for who and how companies could advertise. But with e-cigarette use becoming a habit taken up by smokers all over the world, a massive loophole in the law's terminology has reared its ugly head.

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are tiny metallic tubes with batteries that turn liquid nicotine into an inhalable vapor. Producers of these new products claim that the vapor has none of the adverse health effects that smoking does, and many e-cigarettes users have started calling themselves "vapers" rather than smokers.

And therein lies the loophole. While British television ads cannot advertise "smoking," the law says nothing about "vaping."

British American Tobacco starts advertising on British television this Monday, showing ads for their latest e-cigarette.

According to Reuters, the company's e-cigarette, produced through Nicoventures, advertised online with the catchphrase "pure satisfaction for smokers," but on television the add will simply replace the word "smokers" for "vapers."

And with that small word-swap the ad is made perfectly legal.

The differences between "vaping" and smoking are apparent even with many e-cigarettes trying to look like traditional cigarettes -- some are even equipped with an orange tip that glows when the device is used. In most parts of the U.S., the use of electronic cigarettes indoors is perfectly legal. In certain regions of Britain, restrictions are heavier, but it is often up to the owner of a public establishment whether they want to treat e-cigarette users and their supposedly safe vapors the same way they treat traditional smokers.

Because the devices are so new, little legislation in the U.K. and the U.S. pertains to them. Even health officials don't know exactly how to classify them, as only short-term studies on their safety and use have been published so far.