When I first saw this story break, I couldn’t stop laughing as it was utter nonsense – almost on a par with those little bomb proof plastic bags you have to put you 20ml lip gloss in before you board a plane.
PT Barnum – that marketer extraordinaire would be applauding all the way had this been a marketing job by an e-cig company, because you couldn’t make it up if you tried.
All the furore and questions that have been asked – Why did it escalate the way it did? Are we really that scared of a terrorist attack? Was it an exercise for the cops? The people involved were treated really badly and they were not kept safe! Why not?? Has kept this topic alive for days.
I’m not going to debate these issues – they’ve been done already.
What I have found interesting is reading the press and the forums a few days later and picking up a few odd gems and interesting quotes.
Like…
There is an e-cig called the ‘M6′ sold in France – the website is dire – but great name considering what went on last week.
Some people are now discussing the ‘etiquette’ of vaping – it will be in Debretts next.
Did you know that some literary hack believes e-cigs are ‘effete and cowardly’?
Which basically means they are depleted of energy and have no backbone? I suggest he tells that to the guys that build some of the mods that could power a steamboat – but then the Journo’s need something to write about – and quoting each other is as good as making it up, and proves yet again that they don’t know what they are talking about.
Then there is the good old Sun – vaping an e-cig wherever they can – trying to get into trouble and draw at least a few squad cars, but they were too late to that party and the police too wise.
So what has been the end result to this rather odd incident? A massive win on the marketing front for e-cigs in my opinion – more people know about them now that last week, more has been written about them over the last few days than for several years, and they are more on the radar. So to the folk who see only doom and gloom and how the Gov’t will now legislate e-cigs out of existence – I have to disagree.
E-cigs are well and truly out there now – nothing is going to put them back on the bus, and the M6 Vapour -who ever he/she is - has done us all a favour.