Fighting for flavor
An industry coalition of vape companies has announced the launch of a grassroots cause campaign titled #Fight4Flavor, which aims to encourage adult vapers to share their personal, thoughtful and compelling comments on how e-liquid flavored products have helped them transition from smoking.
The campaign was created in response to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inquiry that could potentially limit or ban certain types of e-liquid products. The FDA is seeking comments, data, research results or other information on topics relating to e-liquid flavoring, such as how flavors allegedly attract youth to tobacco products. All comments must be submitted by July 19, 2018.
“Vaping has allowed me the opportunity to get back in shape so that I can be an active participant in life instead of being on the sidelines,” Christopher Boone, a 33-year-old vaper from New York, commented on the FDA’s website about the proposed rulemaking.
“Flavor and choice of flavors had provided me the number one reason for not going back to cigarettes.”
The coalition introducing the campaign, which is being led by the Global Vaping Standards Association (GVSA) includes industry partners such as AVAIL Vapor, Charlie’s Chalk Dust, Mama’s, SMOK, The Drip Club, Vaporesso, Midwest Distribution, My Vapor Store and Vapor Authority.
The #Fight4Flavor is a multi-touch campaign that will engage adult vapers via various marketing means that will include printed educational materials, emails, social media, news stories, digital assets and branded clothing to build awareness of this initiative and encourage vapers to comment on the FDA’s website.
“The industry leaders of this coalition are all committed to advocating for vapers’ rights and their right to choose flavored e-liquids while also following strict regulations to keep vape products out of the hands of minors,” said Maggie Gowen, executive director of GVSA.
According to the FDA’s website, potential regulatory actions on vapor flavoring include, but are not limited to, tobacco product standards and restrictions on sale and distribution of tobacco products with flavors.
“Today over 400,000 people have made a comment, and through our combined resources, we have the ability to reach over two million additional vapers,” Gowen said. “For adult consumers, flavoring is what helped them transition from smoking to vaping. For the manufacturers and retailers, it’s their livelihood. We have to champion an endeavor that protects all of these groups in an effort towards harm reduction.”
To learn more about the #Fight4Flavor campaign, visit http://gvsa.org/fight4flavor. To submit a comment to the FDA in support of vaping flavors, visit www.vaperrights.com.
