Vape boss says allowing ‘strict’ ads would help smokers quit

Allowing more vape adverts could encourage smokers to switch, says the boss of one of the world’s largest tobacco and vaping manufacturers.

Asli Ertonguc is managing director of the UK and Irish operations of British American Tobacco (BAT), a 123-year-old company that counts Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes among its notable brands.

Traditional cigarette sales are shrinking as smokers increasingly switch to vapes and nicotine pouches which are perceived as less harmful. However, the UK has tough restrictions on advertising these because it considers all nicotine products to be harmful to health.

Ertonguc believes allowing a “very strict marketing framework” targeted only to adults could make smokers aware of alternatives and encourage them to switch. This is at odds with the proposed Tobacco and Vapes Bill which would ban all advertising of vapes.

We put her suggestions to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) but it is yet to respond.

However, on Wednesday it announced a planned crackdown on how vapes and tobacco products are sold, with a plan to force shops to get a licence to sell them, bringing them into line with alcohol regulations.

Unlicensed sellers could be face on-the-spot fines of £2,500. This announcement came after our interview with BAT’s UK boss.

Dressed in a caramel-coloured suit, Ertonguc was composed as she settled in to the studio for the Big Boss Interview, a new business podcast from the BBC.

The 51-year-old single mother who has more than 20 years at BAT has seen the industry and the business transform.

Vaping and nicotine pouches have surged to make up nearly 70% of the company’s UK revenue in the last five years.

“Smokers are changing fast, and so are we,” she says.

While cigarettes contain a range of toxic cancer-causing chemicals, vaping may itself cause long-term damage to lungs, hearts and brains. Therefore, it is only recommended for adult smokers trying to quit as part of the NHS “swap to stop” programme.

The NHS says vaping is less harmful than smoking and encourages tobacco smokers to switch to vaping to help people quit. However, because the long-term effects of vaping are not yet known and because vapes still contain addictive nicotine, it warns children and non-smokers off using vapes.

Challenged over vaping being bad for people’s health, Ertonguc cites studies from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European organisations which suggest that nicotine, although addictive, is not in itself a cause of cancer.

“Nicotine is not the cause of cancer, but it is addictive. It’s not risk free,” she says.

About 20% of 11 to 17-year-olds in the UK have tried vaping, according to a 2025 survey by health charity ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), and 7% of that age group said they currently vaped.

And globally the figures are even more stark with the World Health Organization (WHO) warning at least 15 million children are using e-cigarettes, which is fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction.

Ertonguc admits that seeing children vaping makes her uneasy. “Smoking is not a thing for youth,” she says.

“Any nicotine product shouldn’t be used by anyone under legal age,” she maintains, despite those survey results, which amounts to hundreds of thousands of underaged vapers across the UK.

Ertonguc’s push for looser advertising rules for vapes may be an uphill battle. Under new DCHS proposals in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, making its way through Parliament, all advertising of vaping products would be banned, while consultation will be opened on strengthening rules around the flavours, packaging and design of vapes.

In 2019, BAT came under fire for using social media influencers to promote nicotine products to youngsters.

The ASA banned BAT, along with three other vaping companies, from promoting its products on Instagram.

At the time BAT said its ads aimed to give factual information but “stopped short of direct or indirect promotion”.

Ertonguc says BAT no longer uses influencers to market its products.

“And where we have existence in social media, we have also clear guidance that the audience has to be more than 80% adults,” she says.

Rules on advertising vapes should be reduced to be brought into line the same as “other adult products”, she adds.

Ertonguc says BAT has deliberately focused on closed, rechargeable vaping systems rather than disposable vapes, which flooded the market before being banned in June for environmental and safety reasons.

“These disposable products also changed the entire vaping industry in the UK,” says Ertonguc.

“One, it opened up more smokers to switch. That was the positive part. But equally, we can say the existence of disposable made the [vaping] category lose some credibility.”

Ertonguc is advocating for retail licensing, mandatory age checks, pre-market product testing and clearer health warnings to reflect the risk profile of vaping compared to smoking, and tougher penalties for those who break the rules.

The goal is to prevent illegal products from undermining public health efforts and to support and educate smokers in making informed choices, she says.

Ertonguc expects this approach to have a far bigger impact on reducing smoking than the government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, currently weaving its way through parliament with the aim of creating a smoke-free generation.

Its ultimate aim is to make it impossible for today’s 15-year-olds and younger to ever legally buy tobacco products.

There would also be a ban on vapes and nicotine products from being deliberately branded, promoted and advertised to children.

“Implementation will be the biggest challenge,” she says.

The BAT executive says the penalties for shops that sell vapes to under-18s need to be increased too. “When we look at the fines, they are not very discouraging.”

And despite heavy uptake of vaping among youth, Ertonguc says the tobacco-free products will help the UK’s ambition to reach smoke-free status by 2030.

“I don’t believe it is not achievable,” she says.

The BBC is speaking to the bosses of some of the UK’s biggest firms to find out the stories behind the people that lead them.