Ooh, friend!
I’ve often warned vaping activists not to get too close to the likes of Action on Smoking and Health, and NEVER consider them friends.
Why? Because the endgame of the tobacco control industry isn’t to make smoking history, it’s to eradicate ALL recreational nicotine products, including vapes and pouches. With that in mind, I was amused to read the following, somewhat plaintive, cry from a senior tobacco executive:
You may not know that @AshOrgUK and @BATplc have more in common than you think …
Remarkably, that little gem was part of a longer tweet posted on a British American Tobacco account credited to Kingsley W (aka @SmokelessWord). Kingsley Wheaton is BAT’s chief corporate officer and The Smokeless Word is the name of the podcast BAT launched earlier this year.
You can tell a lot of thought has gone into it because The Smokeless Word complements @smokelessworld, another social media account that promotes Omni™, which BAT describes as ‘a progress summary of our journey to A Better Tomorrow™ by Building a Smokeless World’.
Presented by Wheaton, there are six episodes of The Smokeless Word podcast available, and you can watch them all here, should you be inclined.
But back to Kingsley W’s tweet which was prompted by the second of two social media posts by ASH. The first was triggered by an episode of a new BBC business podcast.
Big Boss Interview is a series of ‘In-depth interviews with the UK's most high profile CEOs and entrepreneurs’, and the one that offended ASH features an interview with Asli Ertonguc, the UK and Ireland managing director of BAT. Responding to the interview, ASH raged:
Shame on the BBC for providing a free platform to tobacco giant BAT to push their lobbying messages against the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
We’re asking the BBC how this is in line with their guidelines on impartiality.
Then, after the interview was reported by the BBC News website (Vape boss says allowing 'strict' ads would help smokers quit), ASH took to social media again to complain that:
Despite multiple complaints we are appalled to see the BBC – a public service broadcaster – continue to provide a platform for a tobacco industry giant, to spout lobbying lines against the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, unverified and unchallenged.
So we fixed their headline for them.
The Linked In post featured a screenshot of the BBC News report with the headline modified to read, ‘Tobacco company boss says ads means marketing nicotine pouches to kids can continue’.
To this clumsy and misleading jibe they added a link to a BBC complaints form and urged followers to ‘tell the BBC what you think’, to which Kingsley W (@SmokelessWord) responded:
Hugely disappointing to see the level of discourse descend to this.
Rather than engaging on evidence and facts, others prefer to invent falsehoods, attack individuals and deliberately misrepresent public-health discussions.
You may not know that @AshOrgUK and @BATplc have more in common than you think…
ASH’s official position on nicotine pouches is:
“Nicotine pouches are very likely to be less harmful than smoking. However, they must be properly regulated.”
And that’s our view too.
ASH also says:
“Many now wrongly believe vaping is as or more harmful as smoking, despite strong evidence to the contrary. Vapes are among the most effective tools for quitting smoking …”
Again, we believe the weight of evidence supports this.
Our views are clear and publicly available through Omni™, just as ASH’s are.
So, let’s debate facts n͟o͟t fiction - that’s how we will make real progress towards A Smokeless World.
Reading this is rather like listening to a spurned lover, or friend. The naïveté is staggering, bordering on bizarre. What did BAT expect? Did they honestly think that to achieve a brave new smokeless world (sorry, A Smokeless World) ASH would publicly ally itself with the world’s second largest tobacco company and together they would walk, arm-in-arm, towards A Better Tomorrow™?
To be clear, I despise ASH’s attempt to bully the BBC and prevent a legitimate (and legal) company from having its voice heard. This is not just a question of free speech and democratic debate, it ignores the huge media bias that the tobacco control industry, led by ASH, normally enjoys and benefits from. As Forest also posted on X:
ASH and the tobacco control industry get plenty of media coverage, often without a single opposing voice. Tobacco companies like BAT are legitimate stakeholders in this debate and are entitled to be heard.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to feel much sympathy for a company committed to achieving a smoke free world preceded, naturally, by a smoke free UK.
As for engaging with ASH, an organisation they claim to ‘have more in common than you think’, that’s one relationship I can confidently predict will never be consummated.