Preventing youth vaping starts with not seeing any

By Cyresse Ann Achilleos

WE LIVE in a time where advertisements hardly look like advertisements at all.

I remember growing up when television commercials stuck around longer than expected. Take Kris Aquino’s “rub-ada-bango,” that song played on repeat inside my head for ages.

Even jingles from health advertisements stuck around like old nursery rhymes. The Department of Health’s jingles on family planning and TB DOTS became part of childhood memories for many Filipinos. Long before we fully grasped what the messages meant, we were already singing along to them with friends. Years later, we still remember that family planning matters and TB is treatable.

Advertising is powerful, it has the power to shift behavior.

This is why many countries began shutting down cigarette advertisements: not just to stop direct marketing, but also indirect selling like sponsored events and merchandise with brand logos. Public health experts understood decades ago that exposure to tobacco ads leads to normalization, especially among young people who are still easy to influence.

In recent times, as the tobacco industry diversified its deadly products, it also adapted its marketing for digital spaces. Today, marketing is harder to spot and regulate, bleeding through influencer content, gaming livestreams, and even cross-border. A Filipino youth can be influenced by a content creator living a continent away. For vapes and other nicotine products, promotion is no longer limited to obvious ads. It appears as lifestyle content, product reviews, unboxing videos, discount codes, affiliate links, livestream selling, hashtags, and casual influencer posts.

Young people carry billboards in their pockets, and a generation being raised by algorithms cannot simply out scroll nicotine marketing. I did not fully understand how powerful such exposure is until I came close to purchasing a vape.

Smoking was off-limits in our home. People close to me know that smoking is my non-negotiable.

Starting senior high school in Iloilo City, then later working there reinforced that mindset. The city’s consistent enforcement of smoke-free policies shaped what felt socially acceptable. I saw staff calling out anyone who would smoke or vape inside restaurants and cafes. Establishments actually complied with the law. Smoking still existed unfortunately, but it was socially undesirable.

That environment mattered more than I realized.

One ordinary day, I walked into a convenience store and saw a vape displayed near the counter. The price caught me off guard: P200 (~$4). I had assumed these electronic smoking devices (ESDs) were expensive and inaccessible.

At the time, I was under significant stress and found myself thinking about the flavors, the absence of cigarette smell, and how easy it would be to try it “just once.” Even the bright yellow packaging felt intentionally appealing.

Afterwards, what was unsettling to me was how quickly I considered vaping after just seeing an e-cigarette. I walked away only because I heard my mother’s voice in my head reminding me that whatever happened in life, I should never smoke.

If a single exposure to a product in a convenience store could make me consider vaping, what happens to young people who encounter nicotine-related content constantly?

Filipinos are the top users of the internet, with young users driving this high usage. Most young people check social media several times a day, and are increasingly exposed to nicotine products appearing as lifestyle content instead of advertising. This exposure is not harmless at all; repeated exposure to nicotine-related content online leads to a significant increase in likelihood of tobacco and vape initiation.

Studies show that youth with no prior tobacco use, who use social media daily, are more likely to begin using tobacco products approximately a year later compared to less frequent social media users. Adolescents exposed weekly to nicotine-related content on TikTok are more likely to start using e-cigarettes. Youth with no prior tobacco use who are liking or following tobacco brand accounts also have a higher risk for any tobacco initiation and for starting to use multiple products.

This happens by design. These deadly companies know that awareness is the first step of every marketing funnel. But unlike most consumer products, the industry’s funnel does not end in a simple purchase. It ends in addiction.

Tobacco is unlike any other consumer product. It kills up to two-thirds of its users when consumed exactly as intended. This deadly industry will only survive by recruiting new users, and those are young people they can easily reach online without worrying about the laws.

The Philippines’ current approach to tobacco advertising is outdated. Restrictions are fragmented and filled with loopholes that the tobacco and nicotine industry continue to exploit. Republic Act No. 11900, which lowered the minimum age for access to vape products from 21 to 18 and reopened the market to flavors attractive to youth, allows online advertising and sales of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.

Partial restrictions have no chance to catch up to algorithmic advertising systems designed to maximize engagement.

With the rise of AI-generated content, influencer marketing, and subtle product placements, the line between content and advertisement gets blurry faster than regulation. Even age-gating measures on social media platforms remain weak and easily bypassed.

We cannot expect young people to “choose freely” in a marketplace deliberately designed to catch their attention and shape their behavior. Protecting young people cannot rely solely on telling us to “make better choices.” Prevention must also involve reducing, if not completely eliminating, the constant visibility and normalization of nicotine products.

With only a partial ban on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship (TAPS), we are playing a catch-up game we cannot win against a cunning industry.

The Philippines, as a Party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), should align itself with global public health standards. Article 13 of the WHO FCTC requires Parties to implement a comprehensive ban on all forms of TAPS, including cross-border and digital marketing. This includes:

• Eliminating point-of-sale displays to ensure no one is exposed to tobacco and nicotine products in stores.

• Strengthening safety measures and enforcement on social media and e-commerce platforms.

• Penalizing influencers, celebrities, and the tobacco industry for promoting nicotine use, whether direct or indirect.

• Preventing legal loopholes and ensuring strong enforcement of the laws.

Preventing youth addiction begins long before the first puff, often with whether young people see the product at all.

Sources:

Australia, T. I. (2025, March 12). Greenhalgh, EM|Scollo, MM|Winstanley, MH. https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-3-health-effects/3-30-total-burden-of-death-and-disease-attributable-to-tobacco-by-disease-category

Freeman, B., Watts, C., & Astuti, P. A. S. (2022). “Global tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship regulation: What’s old, what’s new and where to next?,” Tobacco Control, 31(2), 221–227. https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/31/2/216

Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control. (2024, May). Global Youth Voices Declaration. https://gyv.ggtc.world/declaration

Howe, S. (2026, March 30). “Social media statistics in the Philippines” [Updated 2026]. Meltwater. https://www.meltwater.com/en/blog/social-media-statistics-philippines

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