Upcoming Webinar: New image, same tactics - tobacco and vaping industry strategies to promote youth vaping

1 hour free webinar on Wednesday 29^th April 12:00pm AEST via Zoom.

Presented by Dr Christina Watts, this webinar will cover tobacco and vaping industry tactics.

Vaping has become a major public health issue in Australia among young people. Although the tobacco and vaping industry promotes e-cigarettes as tools to help adults quit smoking, the evidence shows that these products are aggressively designed and marketed to appeal to youth. These tactics are not new—they closely mirror long-standing strategies used by the tobacco industry for decades to attract new generations of consumers.

This webinar will unpack the evidence on how both the tobacco and vaping industries interfere with public health efforts. It will explore how these industries use sophisticated, calculated tactics to undermine tobacco control, shape public narratives, delay regulation, and position themselves as partners in “harm reduction” while simultaneously expanding their market among young people. The same playbook of manipulation, misinformation, and political lobbying is now being redeployed in the vaping context.

Against the backdrop of Australia’s major reforms to vaping regulation, the session will also present a contemporary case study illustrating how industry actors have responded—publicly and behind the scenes—to influence policymaking and weaken regulatory proposals.

Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A session.

• Information about tobacco and vaping industry tactics
• Information about industry responses to vaping regulation

Dr Christina Watts is a Research Fellow at the Daffodil Centre, University of Sydney, nationally recognised for her influential research on the tobacco and vaping industries’ impact on public policy, media narratives, and tobacco control regulation.

Her work has garnered widespread national media coverage and plays an active role in shaping Australian policy. Dr Watts’ research has contributed to key government initiatives, including the 2024 vaping policy reforms, the 2024 inquiry into political lobbying transparency, and the current National Tobacco Strategy.

Prior to academia, Dr Watts worked in the not-for-profit sector for a decade, working across tobacco control policy, advocacy, and prevention program delivery. Bringing together rigorous research and practical policy expertise, Dr Watts is a leading early-career researcher driving evidence-based tobacco and vaping regulation to deliver meaningful population health improvements.