“Celebrity” Vaper Attacked
Worries about the children fuels an attack on a new vaping “celebrity”.
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by Dave Cross
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Robert Jackler, associate of Stanton Glantz and Stanford University professor, created a website just to keep track of advertising campaigns and dangerous vaping celebrities. “Ads for eCig manufacturer NJOY feature rocker Courtney Love, in an expletive-laced ad,” goes the article from the site, “in which supporters of indoor smoking bans are portrayed as ‘stuffy’ and ‘stuck-up’, while the rocker is portrayed as free-spirited and independent.”
Jackler commented in an interview: “The industry professes that it is targeting experienced adult smokers of combustible tobacco to transition them to the arguably healthier vapour products. But if that were the case, why would they engage Courtney Love as a spokesperson?” Maybe Jackler misunderstood who Love appeals to from the names of her previous bands like Babes in Toyland or Pagan Babies? Maybe he genuinely thinks the 52yr-old speaks directly to Californian teens and tots?
It matters little; he and Glantz are convinced that electronic cigarette companies will “leave no stone unturned in marketing to consumers. Taking a page out of the tobacco advertising playbook used in the mid 20th century.”
So we turn to Fatima Ptacek. Fatima who? “Maybe”, you are thinking, “I’ve never heard of her because I’m too old? Maybe I need to ask a young person who she might influence?” Planet of the Vapes conducted extensive research and asked a 15yr-old girl if she recognised the name. She didn’t. She had no clue that we were talking about a girl who is the voice behind the cartoon character Dora The Explorer.
Ptacek (also 15) attends a private school in New York and was allegedly using a vaping product in the toilets of The World School along with a 14yr-old student. While both were suspended for a short period of time, the parents of the other student have filed a lawsuit against the school as they claim their child was forced out whereas Ptacek has been allowed back to study.
Nickelodeon and Ptacek's spokesperson have not commented on the matter, while the school maintain that these matters are, quite rightly, "private and confidential.”
While parents Leonelli and Sundwall want $40,000 and their daughter reinstated, they have attacked Ptacek for introducing her to the caramel-flavoured juice. They accuse her of making their child (who has never done anything wrong in her life before nor nothing, honest) feel pressured into vaping by the celebrity in order to appear “cool”. No doubt Glantz and Jackler have an opinion on this too.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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