Blucigs TV ad campaign, and the Pro kit.

Blucigs were formerly known as Skycig in the UK, and now owned by Lorillard (a giant US tobacco company).

Have launched their multi million pound TV ad campaign which will run continuously between now and the end of December.

It aims to be seen by 50% of adult smokers per month - and to have been seen by 90% of all adult smokers by the end of the year.

This is the full version - the TV version contains a subtitle with the words:
"Contains nicotine, 18+ only, Blu ecigs are not a smoking cessation device and have not been evaluated by the MHRA"

And on the subject of Blu cigs, I purchased one of their new Pro starter kits to see what they have done with it.



It is basically an evod starter kit for 19.99, nothing new there. Here are my initial thoughts :

A vaping great week on holiday !

Last week, I was lucky enough to be able to take the opportunity to have a week off work and go on holiday.

I decided to travel South and visit some family, but that meant driving around the country, and that meant going past some vaping shops.

Now, I love visiting e-cig shops whenever I am away from home - for a chat and to say hello, so I wasn't going to let this holiday be any different.

First stop - on my way down the M1 - I took a little diversion and went to see my friend Stuart, who works at the Ecigwizard shop in Kettering.

I was glad that I did - It was great to meet up with Stuart and have a natter, in between the steady flow of customers. His enthusiasm for the shop was plain to see and I wish that I could have spent more time there. The next time I am passing, I will certainly pop back to sit on the sofa and chat about e-cigs.

Two days later, I was in Peterborough. I had been invited to visit the Ecigwizard headquarters, and spent most of the day as a guest of Chris Carr, who took me on a tour of the factory. I have been selling their WizMix brand of e-liquid in my shop for quite some time now and it is, and always has been, a very popular range for my customers. 

I was glad that I went. Incredible to see the sheer commitment, dedication and enthusiasm of the whole team behind the company, experience the mesmerizing effect of watching the bottling machine go round, and to finally meet people like Sam, for example, that I have spoken to on the phone several times.

The following day, it was time for something a little different and a trip to SweetCloud in Farnborough  to say hello to Jan.

I had met Jan, at her Sweet Cloud shop, back in January - and since then the shop has literally doubled in size! She has extended into the shop next door. If you are ever in the area, then I thoroughly recommend you pay a visit to this shop - hundreds of flavours of e-liquid available, in a choice of PG, VG or 50/50 and choice of products from a CE4 up to a Innokin 134 - and everything in between.

Awesome.

After these 3 visits, one distinct common theme was the genuine sense of enthusiasm and enjoyment of working with e-cigs. It seems to be the same all over the country.

But alas, all good things must come to an end, and eventually it was time for the long ride home !

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the XL Pro e-cig from Intellicig (Nicoventures/BAT)

The XL Pro is the new starter kit from Intellicig, a company owned by BAT.

It is interesting that it has been timed to launch just after the Puritane from Imperial, however the e-cig itself is completely different.

It works using a glass Aspire BDC tank and a variable voltage, Spinner, type of battery.

Here is my initial demonstration of the XL Pro and a quick run-down on how it works.

It is a good starter kit, there is no doubt about that.

I personally use an Aspire tank on a Spinner on a fairly regular basis, and have been doing ever since the Aspires first appeared a short while ago, so there is nothing especially new here.

It seems as though they have looked at what is available and then come up with a checklist of what would be needed for a good starter kit.

- Refillable
- Glass Tank
- Changeable coil
- Variable Voltage battery

The results are then neatly bundled into a well presented box and supplied with a good set of instructions.

It is noticeable that BAT are using the Intellicig brand to develop their 'Generation 2' e-cigs.

I have a feeling that they will run with this kit, whilst at the same time developing new clearomisers and atomisers in anticipation of the Tobacco Products Directive legislation.

It seems to me to be a good tactic for them to have the 2 brands, both Intellicig and Vype - and the strategy appears to be for the Intellicig label to supply regular e-cig products whilst the Vype brand is used for BAT specific products that they have developed themselves.

Actually, I was both pleased and relieved when I saw the kit. Why ? - because it wasn't a "let down". It was good, it worked, and it is the kind of starter kit that I would have come up with using currently available products.

This is part 2 of my XL Pro video

So, it seems like Nicoventures are trying to get some market share, with the launch of this starter kit.

An whilst they are committed to having a licensed medicinal product, they clearly recognise that the real growth is going to be in the generation 2 consumer products and they don't want to be left behind in either sector.

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Martin McKee is not an expert on e-cigs

Martin McKee

It seems like we just keep going round and round in circles on this one.

Martin McKee was on BBC Newsnight last night (38 mins in), perpetuating the myth that he is an "expert" on e-cigarettes - he isn't

As Christopher Snowdon pointed out in this post HERE, - McKee has shown no interest in e-cigs until September last year, and then after posting 2, rather dubious, opinion pieces - he is suddenly elevated to the status of an "expert".

After his dismal appearance on BBC Radio 4, which I commented on HERE, it is surprising how he manages to maintain the facade of expertise on this subject.

Let us just remind ourselves how Martin McKee is viewed by REAL e-cig experts :

Going back to his performance on Newsnight, last night - Martin McKee did his usual trick :
In order to try to mask his lack of knowledge, understanding and research on electronic cigarettes, he always brings the subject round to smoking.

He does it every time - simply because he is out of his depth on this.

When confronted with evidence that the EU TPD could result in 105,000 deaths due to restrictions on effective e-cigs, he doesn't have an answer for this, because he doesn't understand the subject.

When asked a direct question, by Kirsty Walk, he replied "thats not the question we should be asking" - because he had no answer - he was unprepared.

Now, if I published a couple of posts about gas boilers, would that make me a qualified gas engineer?
No, of course not.

So lets say this again, Martin McKee is not an "expert" on the subject of electronic cigarettes. He has demonstrated this time and time again - he has done no research and seems to be completely unqualified on this topic.

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The Puritane e-cigarette, by Fontem Ventures.

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On sale from Monday 24th Feb at Boots the Chemist

The Puritane e-cig has generated a lot of publicity recently, much more so than the average new e-cig launch. I think that this is for 2 main reasons. Firstly because the Puritane is made by a company called Fontem Ventures which is part of Imperial Tobacco and, secondly, because the Puritane will be on sale in Boots the Chemist.

Boots have a very high level of consumer trust, and so its says a lot for the quality of the Puritane.

I was lucky enough to receive some samples of the Puritane to try out and these are my first impressions.

Lets have a look at the presentation - The Puritane comes in 2 formats, a disposable and a rechargeable version.

The packaging is very neat and professional looking, with plenty of information and instructions on the back of the packet.

Here is a size comparison of the Putitane next to the Vype, one of its main competitors.

The Cartomisers are made in the UK. The Puritane holds 1.1ml of liquid and has a highest strength of 1.6% nicotine. Personally, I would prefer to use a higher strength of nicotine, especially in this form of e-cig, but I have to remind myself that this is just the first product from Fontem and I am fairly sure that there will be several variants available in the future.

Fontem appear to be approaching the e-cig market with a different strategy to BAT.

BAT have played a very slick advertising and social media campaign to make their product appeal to smokers as an alternative.

Fontem seem to be playing it in a more cautious, but well thought out, way. With total reassurance about quality at the forefront - and completely guarding themselves against false claims of providing any form of "gateway" or "marketing at kids" - by providing the product over the counter in a respected chemist.

The Puritane would not be suitable for me - but then again, it doesn't aim to be - I am not part of the target market. This product would appeal to someone who is a smoker and who would like to try an e-cig, but who has, so far, had various concerns about electronic cigarettes, a fear of the unknown. That it is available from Boots will provide a high level of reassurance about the quality and safety of the Puritane.

Will it be a success? Of course it will, but how much of a success depends on how it is advertised and marketed. Fontem do seem to play their cards very close to their chest, but I have a feeling that we will not have to wait very long for the marketing to begin.

This is just the first step for Fontem and Imperial, on what will end up being a very long journey for them.

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the Vype national TV advert

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The TV advert for the VYPE electronic cigarette, due to be shown from tonight (Feb 17th) until April 6th.

The advert uses the tagline “Experience the Breakthrough”  It shows a man and woman running through a city before passing through a cloud of vapour and being propelled into the air.

This version of the advert uses the words "satisfaction for smokers" - however the TV broadcast version will use the words "satisfaction for vapers"

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Another e-cig fire scare story.

Another week, another piece of poor reporting about electronic cigarettes.

This time it is from Alison Stacey, the 'Health Reporter' in the Birmingham Mail.

I always thought that journalists were trained to check their facts and do some research before publishing a story, but some seem to think that they can write about a subject that they know nothing about in the hope that their readers will know even less and not notice.

E-cigs are under a political threat, and there is no shortage of stories about them - the news is being checked, daily, by hundreds of e-cig users and campaigners - so the days of poor reporting on the subject going un-noticed are well and truly over.


The original article appeared HERE on Feb 6th.

It is a fairly typical example of the "E-cig burst into flames and nearly burnt a house down" type of article.

As per usual, it completely fails to mention that the single most common cause of house fire deaths are tobacco cigarettes and therefore even with the occasional accident, e-cigs represent a much less risky option.

Lets have a look at the article itself.

It gets off to a bad start with an error in the opening sentence :

"The dangers of smoking were brought home to a Birmingham grandmother when her e-cigarette exploded ‘like a firework’ in her living room."

Sorry, I thought it was an article about e-cigs - and yet it starts out with the 'dangers of smoking' - electronic cigarette users are not smoking, they do not contain tobacco and they do not emit 'smoke' so with even very basic errors like this from the start then we know that the author is clueless on the subject.

The article explains that the person involved was

"charging the electronic device for the first time when it burst into flames at her house in Weoley Castle."

Luckily, nobody was injured - however the article continues in order

"to warn others about the potential dangers of the popular e-cigs."

And now we get to the account of what happened as the victim explains :

“I had nipped upstairs as I was tidying up and heard an almighty bang,”

Yes, that's right. She had put the e-cig on charge and then just 'nipped upstairs' and all of a sudden the device burst into flames.

The thing is, a slightly different story is told on the victims own facebook page, where several days earlier she told her friends that the e-cig was charging overnight and it was her husband that came home to discover the fire. No 'nipping' and no 'almighty bang'.

Next, the article goes on to describe the actual electronic cigarette itself, and Alison Stacey provides more evidence that she is out of her depth on e-cigs as she incorrectly calls it a
"Kangertech protank 3 cigarette". The e-cig had been purchased

"from a man in her local pub for £25"

Because Alison Stacey does not understand the subject that she is writing about and appears to have done little, if any, research - she clearly does not realise that the Kanger product was the ONLY component that has not caught fire - the Kanger tank that fits on to the battery appears to be untouched - which indeed it would be because the Kanger component would have to have been disconnected in order for the battery to have been charging up.

To anyone that knows about the subject, the battery is most certainly not a Kanger battery and neither is the charger. In fact, I recognise the charger, it is one of these :

The charger is designed to charge a different type of e-cig battery and has an output voltage of 5.0volts - which means that we might be getting to a, realistic, possible cause of the fire
- a 5.0v charger was used to recharge a 4.2v battery.
In other words the wrong charger was being used.

And this is why the whole story falls apart. You see Alison Stacey seems to have done no basic fact checking before publishing an article on a subject that she clearly knows little about.

She didn't seem to check any aspect of the story.

Instead of trying "to warn others about the potential dangers of the popular e-cigs", she could have done this :

- Advised readers to make sure that they are using the correct charger. Indeed this is the main piece of advice provided by the Fire Service about e-cigs.

- Encouraged readers to initially purchase from a reliable outlet.

- Explained to readers that these incidents are rare and considerably less frequent than fire caused by smoking

- Informed readers that care should be taken with all rechargeable batteries including laptops and mobile phones, which carry the same risks (especially if the wrong charger is used).


This really is another article written by someone that does not seem to understand the subject.
 As I said earlier, journalists have gone past the time when they can write about e-cigs without scrutiny. If they don't check their facts then they will be picked up on it.

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